40 Plus Years

<p>This book of poems began 40 years ago when our family moved from Evansville Ind. to Hillsborough N.C. a small town near Durham and Chapel Hill. We moved into a large house on a 90 acre farm. Our family consisted of my wife Adrian and our three sons Jo age 11 and identical twins Mike and Dan age 8.</p><p>On Christmas Eve 1975 I thought of a poem to write to my wife Adrian. I put it in the tree that evening and she found it Christmas morning. She was so fond of it that she asked that I write her a poem each Christmas. So for the next forty plus years with only few exceptions I wrote a Christmas Eve poem each year.</p><p>The subject matter varied but was always tied in to our family and Adrian. Since we live on a farm we tried farming for the years the sons were at home. We tried raising cattle and that is the derivation of one of my favorite monikers for Adrian “Mrs. Moo”. She was always hopping around very busily and that is why I also refer to her as “Toad”. Jo married and had three children Caleb Megan and Jacob. He was later divorced but remarried to Kelli. Mike married Sonya and they have three children Michael Elizabeth and Richard. Dan married Kimmie and they have two children Sarah and Kenneth.</p><p>To me the most amazing thing about these poems is that on every single occasion without exception I thought of the poem on Christmas Eve not a minute before. It became very stressful as each Christmas approached since I had not a clue of what I was going to write. So many times I thought I was going to have to say that I simply could not think of anything but each Christmas Eve something would come to me.</p>