I am hunkered down with a stuffy head and scratchy throat today – probably picked up in the dry hotel room we inhabited for a few days. My Christmas eve post was about the very real grief that sometimes overtakes us in life. Grief is just something that is in this broken world. Today’s post, however, is about one of the other gifts we are given – laughter. Richard and I were invited to our son Zac’s place for Christmas dinner, so we left early Sunday and drove the miles in a calm and shut-down world. It was a truly peaceful drive. (A far cry from the trip home in which the Lord had to rescue us from a crazy truck driver who tried to take us out. I still shudder and dissolve in a prayer of thanksgiving when I think of it.) We had only been at our son’s apartment a matter of minutes when we were privileged to watch him kneel down and ask his girl Catherine to marry him. As you can probably imagine, the rest of the day was spent with face-breaking smiles and a sense of giddiness. It wa