The Blessing of Christmas

   When I want to complain about the pain in my knee and dread the coming surgery to correct the torn meniscus I only have to look around me to see how many people live daily with pain that no surgery can fix. They bravely face each day going about their daily chores and even find time and energy enough to help others. The smile on their face shows no indication of the pain they endure. Then there is the pain of the heart when someone looses a loved one and faces life alone, there is no medication to ease that pain. For these the holidays become lonely sad days to face.
   Christmas becomes a time of sharing and opportunity to show love and concern for those around us, those of you who read Angie's blog will know what I mean. Angie has felt the warmth of Christian love and will remember it all her life. How can we leave Christ out of Christmas when it is because of Him that we are moved with compassion for our fellow man and we are reminded of His words "truly, I say to you as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it unto me"(Mt 25:40). We should remember this as we slip our small dollars into the Salvation Army pails or when we have an opportunity to give for special projects at church that reach out into the community.
    As I sit in my recliner with my book and I glance out my window to see the birds at our feeders and the pine trees with the branches decked in snow I am over come with a feeling of peace and thankfulness, I am warm and comfortable here in my home with my loving husband who looks after me so well and I am so blessed. A Christmas wish is that each of us count our blessings.

Christmas past & present

    The cards are all addressed and sent, the wreaths are all hung on the outside of our house and inside the final Christmas decorations are in place. No it is not like years past when we had our 10 ft tree in front of the wall of windows and each year I would work on a new Christmas theme, like the year when the tree was decorated with things from our forest like moss, berries, acorns, pine cones etc. I couldn't wait for the children to see the tree. I spent hours baking and the smell of cookies and pies hung in the air. Don made deer using logs and branches and stood them out in the yard, choosing the best branches for the antlers and hanging red bows around their necks. The ceramic village and train I made complete with a church would be placed in it's special spot on the mantle. Candles everywhere with the scent of bayberry. What wonderful memories! It was Merry Christmas not Happy Holidays for Christ was the reason for the season and in my mind it shall always be. I wonder how many children's Christmas programs I have attended starting with my three and then the grandchildren. I still have to smile when I remember the Christmas my mother gave our boys bathrobes, they wouldn't wear them but they got good use because they would show up each year on the wise men at each Christmas program. Mother gave Don a robe too but like the boys he would not wear it but God forbid you should end up in the hospital and didn't have a robe was mother's thought. God bless her, I miss her today and Christmas will never be the same without her. But this year Don and I will go to a children's Christmas program at our church and no they are not our children but they will be adorable dressed as wise men (perhaps in discarded bathrobes) shyly repeating their lines glancing quickly at mom and dad for encouragement like mine did. My eyes will tear up as they always have. My family which started with Don and I now numbers 33 and though time and distance may keep us apart they are never far from my heart and prayers, and so my dear family .....Merry Christmas and God bless you all.