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BABCOCK
dermatology
Melissa Babcock, M.D.
The Babcock Dermatology Family
wish you and yours
a happy and healthy 2016
Procedures Performed:
• Skin Cancer Surgery • General Dermatology • Cyst Removal
Specialist (Mohs) • Chemical Peels • Mole Removal
• Dermatologic Surgery • BOTOX® Cosmetic • Restylane®
Same Day Appointments Available • Free Parking
4890 Roswell Road, Suite B-10 • Atlanta, Georgia 30342
(404) 835-3052 • BabcockDermatology.com
Located at the comer ofRosivell Road Long Island Drive
Dan Sasser loves conning and going as he pleases. That's just one
of many reasons he chose Canterbury Court to be his home.
"I left a tenured position so I could live wherever I wanted.
Then I retired at 60 and was working part time when I discovered
Canterbury Court. I thought, 'How wonderful it would be to
live there.'"
When he decided to move to Canterbury Court, he chose a studio
apartment, which he says "is more than big enough for me." The
maintenance-free lifestyle also lets him keep a second home in
Florida and take frequent road trips.
Dan says people are "missing the boat" by not moving to a
retirement community sooner. "Here you have several restaurant
options, all kinds of activities and excursions, a theater with daily
showings, a heated pool and wellness center, 11 acres of beautiful
gardens ... it's like being on a permanent vacation!"
READY TO
Call (404) 365-3163 to see our
warm, inviting community and
J/tJ ^ furnished model apartments,
lAy (AAAj . including our diamond collection
studio and one-bedroom residences.
3750 Peachtree Road, N.E.
M Canterbury Court Atlanta, Georgia 30319
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canterburycourt.org
Canterbury Court is Atlanta's first and foremost continuing care retirement
community, non-profit, and committed to welcoming all people.
COMMENTARY
What the Dickens?
Dickens was on to something. In his
classic tale, “A Christmas Carol,” he writes
about the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Pres
ent and Future visiting Ebenezer Scrooge,
all in one night. Well, it seems to me that
his story isn’t all that fanciful because those
same three spirits haunt our house from
December straight through till spring.
The Ghost of Christmas Past lives in
the ornament box. I pull out spray-paint
ed pieces of cardboard that are covered
with gold pasta and clumps of glitter, and
the Spirit whisks me back in time to the
years when my children proudly present
ed them to me. The Spirit enchants photo
ornaments of pudgy little baby faces, caus
ing me to recognize those faces hiding be
hind my sons’ facial hair when I squint just
so. She transports me as I rifle through the
trimmings — suddenly I am with friends
who moved across the country years ago;
I am reliving birthdays and anniversaries
and hearing choirs I once sung with.
The Ghost of Christmas Present is per
sistent. He enters jovially on Christmas
Eve, explodes on Christmas Day with
gilded glory, and then on Dec. 26, quiet
ly takes off his boots and settles himself in
for the rest of the winter. We find him
in the house and yard, and in the very air
we breathe - in the half-packed boxes of
decorations and bows that fill the den for
weeks, in the scent of Frasier fir candles
ever burning, in bowls of red and green
M&Ms scattered about, in the needle
point stocking found mid-February on a
knob of the living room door.
Christmas Present lingers by the pot
ted poinsettias as they drop curled leaves
onto my kitchen floor and near the gin
gerbread-man garden flag that flaps in the
wind while daffodils push up the earth
around it. He will remain until pastel jel
lybeans and porcelain bunnies appear in
March or April — my tradition being to
pack away the final remnants of Christmas
on Good Friday.
Christmas Future lives in the pantry
and in the freez
er. He is some
times known
as the Spir
it of Christmas
Cookies Yet to
Come. He lives
in the Cris-
co that I have
in the cabinet
above the re
frigerator - pur
chased anew
each Decem
ber for the past
three years-
that still may,
one day, become biscotti. He is found in
the containers of candied fruit that never
made their way into batter, but that still
hold the promise of Ina Garten’s fruitcake
cookies.
Christmas Future also haunts the
Christmas mailing list in my Outlook
contacts file, which continues to be up
dated with changed addresses and will be
an incredible time-saver next year once
we spend three days trying to remember
how to get the contacts to print out on
the address labels. And he haunts the clos
et where 70 percent-off items rest, await
ing the gift-exchanges of Christmases in
future years.
For three months, I live in a very crowd
ed house. The Spirits jostle for position in
my kitchen, den and basement, and then,
being ethereal creatures, manage to occupy
my head and my credit card bills, as well.
I find myself, as Mr. Scrooge professed at
the end of The Carol, to be living “in the
Past, the Present and the Future.” Perhaps
it is as the Spirits intended, but there is re
ally nothing I can do about it.
I mean, what the Dickens?
Robin Conte is a writer and mother of
four who lives in Dunwoody. She can be
contacted at robinjm@earthlink. net.
ROBIN JEAN
MARIE CONTE
ROBIN’S NEST
Free will is key
To the editor:
Two articles/comments [in the Dec.
11-Dec. 24 Reporter Newspapers] caught
my attention and inspired me to com
ment. Actually, they caused me to shake
my head in frustration.
First, the caption under the photo on
p. 10: “Sandy Springs resi
dents ... are forced to walk in
the road ...” Correction: No
one “forced” Messrs. Hor
ton and Tigner to walk in the
road. There are literally miles
of places where these two in
dividuals and any other hu
mans or animals may walk. It
is a free choice.
Second, in the review billed as “Din
ing Out” by Megan Volpert, Ms. Volpert
serves the reader well by commenting on
the restaurant OK Cafe, its food, its ser
vice. Ms. Volpert may - and I request that
she and others do - keep their political, ill-
informed and revisionist history perspec
tives to themselves. The flag artwork dis
played in the OK Cafe is one of the things
I have come to like most about the OK
Cafe, primarily because so many people
want to “force” the owners to remove it.
We frequent the OK Cafe because of the
food and service. We have come to appre
ciate the associated denotations and con
notations referenced by the
framed book cover of “To
Kill a Mockingbird,” the
note from Ms. Lee, the con
tinuation of Southern hos
pitality, the friendliness and
fellowship of long-time
customers and the folk art
which includes the flag that is a factual
part of the community’s heritage.
More specifically to Ms. Volpert and
those who share her views: No one is forc
ing you to eat at OK Cafe. If you find it
not to your liking, well “bless your heart”
and don’t feel that you must come again.
William Joueph
LETTER TO
THE EDITOR
E-mail letters to
editor@reporternewspapers.net
10 | DEC. 25,2015 — JAN. 7, 2016 | www.ReporterNewspapers.net