Thursday, December 15, 2011

Day 4: The Stars Were Brightly Shining

I had a different post planned for today, but instead I want to tell you about a bit of Christmas magic that happened last night.

Lee was outside with Sugar (she somehow got loose and was chasing a rabbit in the woods) and said he saw two shooting stars within a matter of minutes. I threw on some shoes and went in the backyard with them.

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Lee wrapped me in his arms and we waited patiently in the cold, quiet night, eyes on the sky.

"Did you make a wish?" I asked. "Yes, I wished that Sugar would come back. And she did."

A few minutes later, a huge, bright star streaked across the sky, right above our house. We've done lots of shooting-star gazing out on the pier at the river, but had never seen one so big and bright (and with street lights around and a nearly-full moon, no less).

I grabbed a blanket and my camera and put on some thicker socks. It was cold, but not unbearable. And surprisingly calm and quiet to be in the middle of a neighborhood.

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Some Googling later showed that what we were seeing was the Geminid meteor shower, which could produce up to one shooting star a minute in clear areas.

PhotobucketOver the next 30 minutes or so, 4 more shooting stars. All beautiful, all evoking a quick gasp, but none as bright as the first.

Seven stars in all. Seven tiny wishes. Each of them feeling like an early Christmas present from somewhere up above.

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[Image via Holly Mathis]

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