Christmas Day is here again and looking back they have all been different. In three stages Christmas has wrapped around my life. First of all were the ones as a child with the excitement and wonder children know. There were a few stand-outs like the time my stocking was hung on a rocking chair and I insisted on sleeping under it. During the night-hours the loaded sock fell from the chair and hit me on the head. The realization that Santa had been there and my stocking was full gave a divine satisfaction and I fell asleep with my arm wrapped around it. The school programs and the programs at church made Christmas very real. Real in two ways. I believed in Santa Clause and I believed the baby Jesus came to earth because He loved us. Not unnatural for a kid to believe both when I was a little girl.

After marriage and children Christmas evolved around our children. We did all the things that I had done as a child and had meant so much. My mother always did a lot of baking and my brother and I were allowed to help. So my three kiddo’s were given their own cookie sheet and they took turns with the rolling pin. They loved making different shapes and spreading the frosting. They made gifts for the grandmother’s and grandfather’s and each other. I liked to keep them busy so they didn’t agonize how much longer it was until they could open their gifts. I was a very unconventional mother and the last week before Christmas they got to open one gift. Of course they opened the one they couldn’t figure out with shaking, rattling and attempts to make a slight unobtrusive rip to see if they could recognize the box. I’ll have to say it was pure joy watching their excitement and remembering my own.

The third thing is pretty much my memories. Losing two husbands to cancer and my boys living so far away I am fortunate to have Becky close so I still have family. Her son and his family provide her with two grand-children to dote on and we still have those family dinners. Over the years I have gone from holiday meals that fed 15 or 20 to fewer and fewer around the table. One by one they left us for their final journey. This past year when I fractured my pelvic bone Becky took over the cooking and has grown into an excellent chef. I am just now getting the desire to bake and cook again. I have missed it as holiday meals are a work of heart.

It is true there are less demands on my time, now, and I can’t do all I used to but I am contented and grateful for the years I have been given. I focus on the things I can do and applaud those who do what I can’t. I would like to wish my family all around the country a Merry Christmas and to my friends and blogger friends I may never meet or see. You are each loved and have a definite place in my life.

May God bless you all richly in the coming year and may you prosper in the things that really matter to you.

Essentially Esther