Feelings of Christmas

I have mixed emotions this holiday season. Christmas was absolutely wonderful! It was great

to have each of our children and their spouses and our grandchildren over and it felt so warm

and wonderful. All except Thomas, who is serving in Washington as a missionary But, he called

and just warmed our hearts even more! I was totally spoiled by everyone and it felt so good.

I'm used to it. ...it's true. Being sick has it's ups and down. One of the downs is that the food

that I serve usually isn't very good. I try to simplify and it's just not the same. Even with lots of

help in the kitchen somehow the homemade cooking is still missing. We had the huge tortillas

and beans and salsa and all the fixings. Many people helped. But, because the tortillas were a

couple of days old... for some reason we couldn't get them soft and they just weren't the best.

Maria worked hard in the kitchen and insisted on me opening her gift early Christmas morning

so as to use it in serving the meal. She said that I would love it. I did! It was a lazy susan with

ceramic gold containers with a center bowl. It was perfect to serve the food on Christmas day

and the food looked beautiful in it! We received special gifts from each of our children as well.

Each of the married children, which is all of them but Thomas, gave a gift to each couple.

James and Julie had brought a homemade bean salsa which was delicious. It was put into 4

different containers and Julie put it into the kitchen. For some reason, I thought it was for the

meal and so I dumped a couple of them into a container into the lazy susan for everyone to

enjoy. James and Julie have only been married since August and it was her first Christmas with

us. She didn't say anything at first....but later James told me that the bean salsa's were

intended to go to the other 4 couples for their gifts. I felt really bad. There were only two left,

so just two of the couples got to have their gifts. Oh well. I wish I could be perfect and not

make mistakes but somehow I just keep making them. James and Julie were nice about it and

overlooked it.

Then Christmas night, Larry got up with cramps in his legs and when he almost fell I braced

him with my body and helped him back onto the bed. In doing so I hurt my left knee. So, I

have a brace on it and it is injured. So, Larry is at church right now, and I am home alone again

with the same old conjestion and the knee problem. But, wonderful news is that my voice came

back and I was able to talk with Thomas on Christmas Day. That was the best Christmas gift

ever!

Oh, and I mustn't forget the very special Christmas Eve that Larry and I experienced. At first, it

wasn't so wonderful....as we were struggling to finish our homemade gifts for our children. We

were saying to ourselves, "how did we ever do it in the past....why are we so slow this

year....and how are we ever going to get all the pages stuffed into these plastic sheets to put into

the books...." When all of a sudden we heard someone knock on the door or ring the doorbell.

Larry went to the door and there was a heavy basket with a pink and white checkered cloth

over it. He brought it in and we looked inside. There was fresh citrus fruit and a big jar filled

with quarters and other coins in it which was labeled "Christmas Jar". Then we opened a gift

that was in the basket and it was a book entitled "Christmas Jars". We had never heard of this

book and thought this was pretty special for someone to think of us. We sat on the couch

together and our hearts melted. Here we were having a hard time and someone was out doing

something so wonderful for us. We wanted to read it Christmas night but were too busy...so we

decided to read it together after Christmas. (We are now about 3/4 through it and are enjoying

it so much together...it's our night time story!) It wasn't but 10 minutes later when there was

another knock at the door. I went to the door and didn't see anyone. Then I looked down and

saw a large container of cashews and 2 bank envelopes stuffed with money. I brought them in

and we sat on the couch together to count the money. We started crying together as we

counted out the 100-crisp dollar bills that someone had so carefully put into the envelopes for

us. People are so kind and thoughtful. It surely made our Christmas so special. Larry and I

worked faster and had renewed energy. By about 2 am we had finished our gifts and crashed!

Late Christmas morning, we were just getting up when the phone rang. Larry saw it was

Washington. He answered the phone and said, "Thomas?" I jumped up and grabbed the other

phone. What a wonderful Christmas morning. He couldn't talk long but wanted to tell us that

he was going to call a couple of hours earlier than expected. Our hearts felt so good and it was

certainly Christmas!