Christmas Parade December 6, 2008 Fredericksburg, Va.

What better way to spend a Saturday night than dressing up your hounds and yourself, getting in your vehicles and heading downtown. You are now at a parade site. The temperature is in the upper 20's, the snow is falling, and the wind is howling. When you arrive, what to your wondering eyes do appear, but a bunch of you friends who also bought their dressed up reindeer (I mean greyhounds) to join you. You do all this not because you have to, but because you want to. You walk the streets to see the smiling faces, the waving, and then it becomes clear why you are there. Suddenly you are no longer cold. The wind has stopped, you find yourself smiling too. Maybe it's not about the receiving of gifts, but the giving of yourself. Maybe Grandma was right after all.