A little slower, perhaps, but so very grateful

Greetings: 
The Christmas season came up fast and this year it nearly snuck by without me. Well, it wasn’t that bad. I’ve just managed to do things in 2021 a little slower and later. The Betterhalf has now begun to relax somewhat because I finally got our Christmas letter written so she can send it out before Dec. 25. Her Christmas list for my “To-do” things has been shortened, or she just gave up and did them herself.
I told the Betterhalf continually not to panic at my timeline. It’s simply what is called “old age” that has contributed to my lateness. I’ve admitted I’ve reached that “old age” stage, but the Betterhalf refuses to acknowledge such a thing has happened to her even though several weeks ago she casually commented she wasn’t going to a lot of preparation for the upcoming holiday season.
However, I’ve noticed this Christmas season the Betterhalf  “only” put on approximately 2500 lights on the outdoor tree and 1600 on our in-house Christmas tree compared to years before when the light count reached near 5000. She can still lug the in-house decorations from the basement by herself, but this season asked me to help straighten the artificial tree.
The Betterhalf vowed she was not going to do as much Christmas baking as before. Thus far, frosted sugar cookies, homemade fudge, candied snowballs, Chocolate peanut butter elephant ears, Blossom cookies, Mounds bars, Rice Krispies bars, Butterscotch oatmeal cookies, snack Chex mix, and a variety of other goodies have already flowed from her kitchen.
As we embark on our “62nd married Christmas season” together we are still truly blessed despite eating unhealthy sweets and earlier turning our bodies into pin cushions with three COVID shots. The Betterhalf has convinced me I haven’t slowed down as much as I thought. She told me, “We haven’t slowed down, the world is just going faster!”
Yes, as we look back over the year, we realize we have been truly blessed throughout our life and not just the past year. We’re thankful for the many blessings the Good Lord has given through his unconditional love and “the option to get older.” We can always find someone not as fortunate.
We’re thankful we have friends like you. May the Lord continue to watch over each of you. Merry Christmas and God Bless!
RL Furse  is publisher emeritus of the News-Register