Epilogue

With all the commotion and excitement of Christmas 2006 coming quickly to an end, I am rushing to add a footnote. Call it an Epilogue, if you will, to my favorite Christmas story.

I recently published an article here announcing my book entitled "Faithfully Given, Humbly Received". (The book is available at Lulu.com) In the book I share the story of a particularly impoverished Christmas when my daughters (and I) were very young.

The salvation and blessing of that Christmas never leaves our memories. The luster of Christmas "magic" shines as bright as that day it self. The full and tender, tearful emotions rise quickly and uncontrollably to our eyes. Our annual traditions and celebrations have all been founded in that incredible Christmas.

The story of "Faithfully Given, Humbly Received" shares the situation of one young struggling single mother and her two daughters who faced a bleak and empty Christmas many years ago. It is a true story. Those daughters are now grown with children of their own.

They and I will celebrate our Christmas in separate homes this year, hundreds of miles apart. In their humble circumstances they will re-enact the traditions we developed together. With their children and their husbands, they will share the simple traditions of family, friendship, loving, giving and receiving. It is a wonderful legacy to observe. I will join them by observing it in my heart.

Beginning with the Christmas of "Faithfully Given, Humbly Received", when I sewed sleeping gowns from donated fabric, we would exchange brand new Christmas pajamas every Christmas Eve. In my home, that tradition will be held-over until next year for budgetary reasons. Santa won't find us sleeping snuggly in new pajamas. Santa will be skipping my house this year.

Beginning with the Christmas of "Faithfully Given, Humbly Received", my daughters were taught that Santa relies on the money he receives from the parents to deliver the goodies each year. In that way, they understood that Santa couldn't bring to our home the same number or value of presents that other children could receive. I couldn't send him money so Santa will be skipping my house this year.

Beginning with the Christmas of "Faithfully Given, Humbly Received", the stockings have been hung and filled with stuffed animals weeks before Santa's arrival. When he arrived, he would remove the temporary contents and fill the stockings with presents, each wrapped individually - even the sticks of gum! The temporary contents will grow dusty because Santa will be skipping my house this year.

Traditions in our home grew and some changed through the years that followed the Christmas of "Faithfully Given, Humbly Received". But, the foundation of the traditions remained the same. Ornaments and pajamas are now store bought while the stuffed animals hung in the stockings with care from the very first year remain the same. The festivities and activities changed, as did our stature and our bank accounts. Eventually we added the tradition of a fine Christmas dinner. It replaced the dinner of our humble beginnings.

Christmas Dinner would begin with mounds of cold cooked shrimp with cocktail sauce and various appetizers or finger foods. The Christmas feast always included a Prime Rib Roast surrounded by a table overflowing with all the trimmings. The sides and the desserts were variable but rolls always graced the table. We developed a special family recipe for mashed potatoes that takes the breath away. This year I finally learned how to make the pan gravy. We suffered through the many years when the potatoes relied on the sour cream that was in them for flavor because the gravy was usually a flop. So, here we are in 2006, and I can make a gravy fit for a king. But, Christmas fast approaches and prime rib is out of the question.

But, wait! Unlike the Christmas of "Faithfully Given, Humbly Received":

my cupboards are not bare and the electricity, though yet unpaid, is still on. The tree is beautiful without the pile of presents and the pajamas we use everyday are fine, even for Christmas Eve. No neighbors have pitched in with cookies, crafts and decorations for children that have grown and gone. No church vans will arrive with toys to fill the stockings or coats to warm the bodies of children out and on their own.

I got a phone call this morning.

The caller I.D. indicated it was my daughter.

She, her sister and both of their husbands sent Santa some money this year so he could visit my house.

They're placing a last minute order with the staff at the North Pole to have all the fixings of our long-held traditional Christmas dinner delivered to my house by Christmas Eve.

By my children, faithfully given.
By me, humbly received.

Isaiah 54: 11-13
O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colours, and lay thy foundations with sapphires. And I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant stones. And all thy children shall be taught of the LORD; and great shall be the peace of thy children.