Mayberry Christmas

Christmas Day 2008. It’s late afternoon and I’m taking my first peek at the computer in over 24 hours. I’ve been back to Mayberry the past few days helping around the house, hanging with friends and family and especially our kids and their friends. It was great to hear my middle child say how the candle light Christmas Eve service was her favorite. It’s great being back in Mayberry. Now I’m counting down the time to firing up the Weber to grill a Christmas dinner tenderloin. I’ve got both of Weber’s great grilling books out along with Julia Child to get my game on, or should I say brush up my game. I’ve done nice expensive pieces of meat over the years and always winged it to fairly good success. Back then, most of the pressure I put quietly on myself. Now that I am in the grilling business the pressure is on from my newly vocal family- particularly my 83 year young mother-in-law who is worried I’ll overcook the tenderloin. Meanwhile Susan is fretting over a crust. Back to Mayberry. That is my theme for this blog and our holiday time together. My wife and I were lucky enough to grow up in our own Mayberry’s which were small towns in New Jersey and we were even luckier to find Mayberry in a smalltown in Georgia for our kids over 16 years ago. I have nothing but affection for Mayberry and all the Americana it stands for. The bedrock of America is Mayberry- honest, friendly, hard working people who care about everybody in the community. Mayberry is also about innocence, family, faith, hope and joy. Our kids don’t get the Mayberry analogy but they will. Time to go prepare the tenderloin.