By Jan Miller Penton

This morning’s cobwebs lingered as the dawn’s light slowly chased away the darkness. Thoughts began to take shape, and my mind turned to coffee. I could almost smell it brewing when suddenly I sat up in bed.

This was no day to laze around! I had better get up and at em if I wanted to have everything ready in time. The realization had dawned that today was a special day. I was hosting a housewarming for a friend and needed to start my day more quickly than usual so that everything would be ready when guests began to arrive.

My Hallmark movie provided only background noise last evening as my mind drifted to wrapping gifts and preparing seating arrangements. My sister, Dianne, and I had shopped for several hours after church yesterday looking for our gifts and gift bags. We were surprised when we saw that our local Dollar Tree had such a limited supply of bags. Not to be deterred, we found some wrapping paper and decided to take care of this the old fashioned way. Luckily, Dianne had a supply of tissue paper at her house stashed for a rainy day because the only colors we could find were for Christmas gifts.

It’s funny how we can get spoiled to the easier way of doing things when only a few years ago most everyone wrapped their own gifts. When I went to bed last night I was quite satisfied with how the mixture of the few bags we could find with the wrapped packages looked on the gift table. When the others added their no doubt brightly colored packages the effect would be lovely.

But there are always last minute things to take care of so I scurried from my nest to get a start on the day. I made a list of things that needed to be taken care of and was out the door in record time.

I made a quick stop at the grocery for a fruit tray and a few other goodies before wheeling into Paul’s Pastry for one of their famous king cakes.

The season doesn’t seem complete without at least one of Sherri’s delicious treats, and I was glad to have this occasion to share one with friends.

It seemed, as it usually does, that guests began arriving before I was quite ready, but no worries. That is the wonderful thing about good friends.

One or two usually come a little early to help with the last minute details. For someone who has a little challenge with time management that is truly a wonderful gift.

Soon my little house was filled to the brim with laughter and chatter. Everyone seemed to be talking at once, and I sat back and smiled. These wonderful friends and neighbors took time from their busy lives to reach out to one who had lost most everything in a fire. This is why I love my people.

This is why I love my hometown.