Kman was singing to himself this morning- not an uncommon occurrence, and a nice one at that. He reminded me of my favorite Neil Diamond song. "Cracklin Rosie." It's not the most dramatic of the Neil oeuvre, nor is it the most singable. But it is my Christmas song.

When I was probably 3 (could have been 4), we were at my grandparent's house. We were celebrating Christmas, and had a fire going in the fireplace. The presents had been opened, and everyone was happy. My father picked me up, and was dancing with me. That was the song that was playing. I hear it now, and remember the warmth, and the love and the security. It is by far one of the happiest moments of my life, and one that I have trotted out on occasion when needed to get through something worse. Funny, I don't invoke the song often. Don't even own it, actually. It's like if I did, it would lose some of its potent firepower. Kind of like if I think about that time too much it might go away. Funny how that works. Because in actuality, it will go away some day. For sure.

("for sure" is part of an elaborate F1 based drinking game in our house now- though we watch the races too early to actually make it a drinking game- currently it's in production, and theory mode- to be unleashed at a later date.)