Random thoughts on the Eve of Christmas Eve...

I am sitting in the living room at 11:30pm, listening to the timer going off every 30 seconds on the microwave. I guess I should go turn it off. Be right back. Done. OK, you are probably wondering why our timer is going off at 11:30 pm, so I'll tell you. Luis is making a huge pot of the traditional, Christmas Eve pozole. He started his concoction at 10:30. pm. P! M! OK, so I have been known to start cooking rather late now and again, but as the timer was going off repeatedly (I think it chimed at least 20 times!), I began to think about how different Luis and I are. Take the pozole. If I started cooking a pot of authentic Mexican pozole at 10:30pm, I would not be able to sleep until the soup was cooked, cooled, and put in the refrigerator. Luis can put the pot to boil, set his alarm for one hour and in an instant he's in dreamland. I guess you could say I'm a little uptight, or maybe you could look at it as Luis is really laid-back. Either way, you can be sure that the pozole will be in it's proper place at midnight, and our house will not have needed five fire stations to battle the Great Pozole blaze of 2010. There have been times (the first two years of our marriage, to be exact) when the opposites almost drove me completely insane and to an early grave! (Funny how those things seemed so charming when we were dating!) However, I can honestly say, that, over the last 14 years, I have learned to appreciate our differences in opinion and perspective. OK, maybe I don't ALWAYS appreciate them (like tonight), and perhaps there are still times when I think, "Why can't you be more like...like...well, ME!" (Because I am so perfect, of course, and who wouldn't want to be married to someone just like themself??) The differences have helped to soften some of Luis's rough edges, and helped to toughen up some of my soft, wimpy ones as well. So, if you'll pardon the pun, it all boils down to this: I am thankful for a great man, with big dreams, whose adores his wife and children, who is extremely hard working, has HUGE faith, and on top of all that, can make Pozole. Merry Christmas to me!