You know I couldn’t sleep very well last night, started in bed and ended up in my easy chair before my feet hit the floor this morning.
As I prepared myself for the day’s journey and the holiday season, I was getting a little melancholy standing at the mirror shaving.
Christmas was always a very special time for me. The month of December always included my wife’s birthday on the 14th, our wedding on the 21st and Christmas on the 25th.
Sheila has since received her angel’s wings.
December was a month of many fine memories. Going to church on Christmas eve, gathering at my in-laws Leon and Ethel for some gift opening in the warm upper garage where smiles and jokes help decorate the tree.
Another joyful happening at Leon’s Christmas Eve celebration always included a sampling of his famous eggnog. It for certain would warm one’s soul on a cold frigid night.
Leon had a magic touch when it came to making eggnog and strawberry wine.
All the family would be there on Christmas day and we normally had a nice meal at the in-laws house.
Wease (Helen), my sister-in-law, after a sip of Leon’s eggnog, would always be chasing those tiny green peas on her Christmas plate with her fork.
“These peas seem to be moving,” Wease would often say.
Many Christmases have come and gone since those happy days, and some of those people who had so much fun for many years in that warm garage have gone with them.
And many people even today notice the absence of love ones, friends and their smiles of joy; and so, it goes too with Christmas get togethers.
Christmas is often a time too of passing years. Father time comes to visit each of us and reminds us that those special moments of this holiday are collected in years like sand in an hour glass.
Giving and the spirit of Christmas becomes a little more meaningful as we grow older.
I recently read a line that maybe suggested something bigger about Christmas too.
‘Maybe Christmas, the Grinch thought, doesn’t come from a store’
Perhaps the real ‘magic’ of Christmas comes from the Christmas story and that art of giving to others.
Charles Dickens once famously said, “I have Christmas in my heart and try to keep it all the year”.
Why can’t giving be a habit we continue to use beyond a few days of a year.
Helping one who is less fortunate would surely be a noble habit.
Visiting the sick and downtrodden would certainly be a welcomed gift to the needy.
Assisting a widower in need would be something to do when possible. Friendship is perhaps the noblest gift one might bestow in a troubled world today.
Like I have done on many past Christmas weeks, I watched “It’s a Wonderful Life,” a 1946 black and white film with Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed.
It is a story about George Bailey, an individual who is contemplating suicide on Christmas eve 1945 after his bank which he owns is going under.
George is proud of his life in Bedford Falls, New York, and he has a kindness in his heart for his neighbors there.
As this story unfolds it tells of those events of George’s life growing up, his rise to owning a bank loaning company, and his friendliness to the people of his community. When his bank loses $8,000 to the villain Henry F. Potter (Lionel Barrymore) of the movie, his life tumults deeply, provoking his thought of suicide.
Prayers are sent up to heaven, and angel Clarence Odbody, who is striving to get his wings is sent to earth to rescue George. This black and white film has been determined to be one of the greatest 100 movies ever made and is rated number 11 on some lists.
When George wishes never to be born, Clarence takes him back and George sees how his wish destroys many of his family and friends in his life. He then asks nervously for his wish back.
His ‘anguished’ wish returned, he goes home, and the friendly town’s folk of Bedford Falls comes to his rescue and donates the money needed to keep his loan business open.
Happiness rules this Christmas Eve for the Bailey family, and Clarence donates a book, ‘The Adventures of Tom Sawyer’ with his signature and a note to George which reads:
“Remember, no man is a failure who has friends.”
No truer words were ever written by an angel, I’m thinking.
Merry Christmas friends!
The End.
