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!
