My Western Sky

On December 7th, my beloved Mee Maw Weaver would have turned 100 years old. Even though she did not live to see this monumental birthday, which was her wish, she did live 93 wonderful years, which is not too shabby.  Christmas was her favorite holiday. She loved decorating her house and buying gifts for our family. Mee Maw loved Christmas so much that she drank her morning coffee out of a Christmas tree mug year-round. To honor my Mee Maw daily, I do the same, and it is one of the reasons that I go "Christmas crazy" in my own home during the season.  I wrote this piece as a tribute to my Mee Maw after she passed away in 2007. My sister and I read part of it at her memorial service. I am posting it on my blog as a "Happy 100th Birthday!" tribute to one of the most amazing women I will ever know... Mee Maw memories permeate my childhood:  spending Friday nights with her and Paw Paw while Mom went to football games, learning how to play solitaire at the kitche...

In February of 2011, my family got iced in for a week by freakish Winter weather in Texas (it happens occasionally), and I wrote about our adventures then .  When we got the word that temperatures would not get above freezing for at least three days and that school was closed on Friday due to an ice storm, I got giddy. Even though we have just returned from Thanksgiving break and have only been back in school four days, who doesn't love an unexpected day off from school? We knew the bad weather was coming (thank you, Pete Delkus from WFAA Channel 8 . (You know you are officially old when you have a news station and weatherman of choice.) When Pete started using terms like "Icemageddon" and phrases like "the Metroplex will be enshrouded in ice," I knew we needed to prepare. Most people raided the grocery stores on Wednesday night, the empty bread and chip shelves a preview of the Zombie Apocalypse, but I hit Hobby Lobby when it was still  72 degrees. I knew the...