Here it is the Christmas season again. A time for goodwill to all. A time of presents and parties.
We all seem to have gotten caught up in the gifts and have forgotten everything else.
In '1976 my husband had three heart attacks in one night and was in cardiac arrest when he got to the hospital. It was four days before we knew weather he would live or not.
That was a very enlightening time for us. We had recently moved into the house and had our three kids, his two from another marriage and his niece. No money and lots of bills.
There was a woman in town that collected toys, games and books all year and would give them to people in need. Bless her for that..Without that beautiful woman and her caring.....my kids wouldn't have had presents. The Salvation Army gave each of the younger ones a toy. But nothing for the teenagers.
We really didnt have much to have a Christmas feast with....but were happy we were all together.
Christmas eve there was a knock on the door and there stood my friends with all kinds of cookies, candy, wine, beer, coffee and soda for the kids..They also brought a tree. We all sat the tree up and sang songs while we decorated the tree. We wrapped the presents in funny papers.
It was such a wonderful night and one that none of us have forgotten. How rich we were to have such wonderful people in our lives.
Years later my daughter was to write two essays for school. One was to be on thier best Christmas and the other on thier worst Christmas. She wrote one essay and got double grades for it. The title of hers was, "My Worst Best Christmas", in which she related this same story. She said that that Christmas taught her the true meaning of Christmas.
And it made me think back on past ones when I was a child. We were a military family and usually overseas and far from family. I remember my parents inviting the single gi's over so they wouldnt be alone on the holidays. And I can remember all the fun we all had and how happy those guys seemed to be just bieng able to be apart of a family on the holidays.
I think we need to spend less on gifts and give more of ourselves. It seems to me that people who have less really have more....they have laughter and happiness. Most of us have lots of bills that take a year to pay off and then we start over again.
Perhaps it is time for us to look to more togetherness with our family, friends and nieghbors.
I hope we can all have a happy holiday season and a better new year.
