Merry Christmas! The draft of this letter has been done since the morning of December 7th, but here it still sits in the laptop. So, As papa elf still snores away in his warm cocoon, I send it to you. Forgive us for not getting it in the snail mail!
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Soft amber skies greet me as I walk out into the cool still air this December morning. Two cardinals, resplendent in red, perch in the bare fig tree. The last golden leaves cling to the black walnut; nandinas heavy with glossy berries mimic the red of the birds. God is good; we are blessed; Our circle has come round to Christmas once again.
After we welcomed in the season with song, food, and over sixty friends from three to ninety-three last evening, we paused while putting away the last of the Chili con Queso and chocolate dip to think about the evening, our friends, and the year that is almost over.
We have shared happy times and sad , but we are reminded once more that it is all is a part of what life is all about and we are all part of a larger plan. We were saddened to lose George Brown, Pam’s father this year, but we are encouraged to know that he was a man of faith who loved his family and doted on our great nephews, his grandsons.
We also marvel in the glory of the addition to our large extended family with another beautiful grandgirl, Leila Kate whose laughter and smiles light up a room. Her sister Ava Grace is an excellent older sister who will be able to teach Leila wonderful things such as bubble blowing and swinging upside down from the monkey bars.
We have continued to enjoy not having to go to work each day. Klep’s position as a town councilman gives him a chance to employ his planning skills. Right now he is working on a park improvement project which will provide more of a playground area for our town children. He has also completed a new fence across our front yard which has drawn compliments from our friends. Believe you me, that sucker is straight! Every paling is precise!
Our travels have taken us up and down the road to Tennessee for April and October where we enjoyed extended family and watching our hills transition into spring and autumn. We have visited several times in the uplands of South Carolina. Suffering from the malaise of winter in March, we booked ourselves on a four day Caribbean cruise out of Jacksonville where on the last evening we watched the shuttle rise through the sunset skies.. In June we took my long dreamed trip to Anne of Green Gables country, Prince Edward Island, Canada flying into Portland, Me., renting a car, and driving up the coast, across New Brunswick, and over the Confederation Bridge to the Island. While there we stayed in a B&B in Charlottetown that was straight out of the era of Anne. Coming back we took time to drive along the Bay of Fundy marveling at the mountains falling steeply to the shore and the wide fluctuations of the tides.
In August we spent a weekend on St. Simons Island at the Scrambling for the Cause, an event to raise money for MS which is done to honor our son Kevin each year.
Since October we enjoyed home, friends, and family here in Jennings. Thanksgiving time was a joy, with only one table but two shifts this year as Pam, John, and the boys got back for leftovers. We all struggled manfully to complete the Thanksgiving 1000 piece puzzle so that we could finally get some sleep that night.
And now we are at Christmas again. Oh, but does our country need real Christmas this year: hope, peace, joy, and love.
All the presents and hurly burly will not do much for us, but a little quiet reflection about the child so long ago and what He means will go a long way toward giving us all what we really need.
May your Christmas truly be full of Joy, Hope, Peace, and abundant Love.
Love,
Klep (Lowell) and Barbara
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Shaping Christmas
Sometime yesterday afternoon I got the Christmas spirit. Now this is not as easy as it would seem. Getting the spirit is something my family considers vitally important. Ever since I weighed less than a hundred pounds, I have been asked the question, "You got the Christmas spirit yet?". There is no guarantee what will accomplish this or trigger it or bring it on. Sometimes it is almost Pentecostal in its arrival; other times, a sound, a smell, an event, or an object may bring on the spirit.
I had done everything right to be in full spirit mode. We've had Christmas carols playing since the turkey got cold. The tree was up before rivalry Saturday. The nativity set resides on the mantle in the hallway. Lights and garland adorn the banister on the front porch. I had heard my first Salvation Army bell and jangled coins into the bucket. I still didn't have the spirit.
After getting home from a harried trip to Sam's, WalMart, and Publix, I set up the ironing board and began my annual task of pressing the Christmas table cloths. When I unfolded the large holly green cloth my mother gave me twenty years ago, I felt the first tingles of the spirit.
The table cloth is a huge thing constructed of about ten yards of green broadcloth. My mother must have made it the first year we celebrated Christmas at the big oak table we got after we moved into the Gill house about 1950. We didn't have a lot of money. No one did. My mother was a wizard at the sewing machine. She had a treadle sewing machine which she kept out in the hall. She probably bought the fabric at one of the stores in town. At that time there were at least two stores in town that carried cloth for sewing. She shaped it so that it would cover the table even when the all the leaves were in to form a large oval. She could seat twelve easily when this was done.
I remember how proud I was of my mama's table when she put on the pretty table cloth and then loaded the company table with good food. The food was always good whether on the regular table in the kitchen or on the company table in the parlor, but there was just something extra special when she used that green table cloth.
Christmas Eve was our really special night of the holiday season. We almost always had our friends, John and Ethel Lewis who had no children. We loved the feeling of being included in adult conversations and we enjoyed the feeling of being adored by these two people who found us interesting and amusing.
So, we gathered in that big old living room with the dining table covered in the bright green cloth and laden down with mama's Christmas goodies: fruit cake, fudge, divinity. We drank her home canned scuppernong juice. We listened to tale spinning, and eventually, we would open our gifts. It was a special, precious time.
My Christmas spirit has been somewhat stymied this year because for the first time ever, neither of our sons will be home for Christmas and Christmas for us during the years they were growing up was always a wonderful, family centered time. Before we moved back to Hamilton County we started our celebration by a trip to our favorite Mexican restaurant in Ft. Walton. Usually Santa would see us leave and would deliver the gifts to our home after we had done our annual drive around. After we moved here, we included the larger family in our Christmas Eve celebrations. Christmas day was low key. We included a birthday cake for Jesus. This was originally one of the boy's idea since it was a birthday celebration. Many Christmases we never got out of pajamas for the day.
So, this year will be a little different, but it will still be good because it is still Christmas. We will sit in a candlelit room with the sound of soft music, and Klep will take down the Bible and read the Christmas story from Luke. Therein is the true spirit of Christmas in those words which begin "And in those days, it came to pass..."
We will feel the peace, love, hope, and joy that that simple story gives us. It will spread over us and we will be blessed.
I had done everything right to be in full spirit mode. We've had Christmas carols playing since the turkey got cold. The tree was up before rivalry Saturday. The nativity set resides on the mantle in the hallway. Lights and garland adorn the banister on the front porch. I had heard my first Salvation Army bell and jangled coins into the bucket. I still didn't have the spirit.
After getting home from a harried trip to Sam's, WalMart, and Publix, I set up the ironing board and began my annual task of pressing the Christmas table cloths. When I unfolded the large holly green cloth my mother gave me twenty years ago, I felt the first tingles of the spirit.
The table cloth is a huge thing constructed of about ten yards of green broadcloth. My mother must have made it the first year we celebrated Christmas at the big oak table we got after we moved into the Gill house about 1950. We didn't have a lot of money. No one did. My mother was a wizard at the sewing machine. She had a treadle sewing machine which she kept out in the hall. She probably bought the fabric at one of the stores in town. At that time there were at least two stores in town that carried cloth for sewing. She shaped it so that it would cover the table even when the all the leaves were in to form a large oval. She could seat twelve easily when this was done.
I remember how proud I was of my mama's table when she put on the pretty table cloth and then loaded the company table with good food. The food was always good whether on the regular table in the kitchen or on the company table in the parlor, but there was just something extra special when she used that green table cloth.
Christmas Eve was our really special night of the holiday season. We almost always had our friends, John and Ethel Lewis who had no children. We loved the feeling of being included in adult conversations and we enjoyed the feeling of being adored by these two people who found us interesting and amusing.
So, we gathered in that big old living room with the dining table covered in the bright green cloth and laden down with mama's Christmas goodies: fruit cake, fudge, divinity. We drank her home canned scuppernong juice. We listened to tale spinning, and eventually, we would open our gifts. It was a special, precious time.
My Christmas spirit has been somewhat stymied this year because for the first time ever, neither of our sons will be home for Christmas and Christmas for us during the years they were growing up was always a wonderful, family centered time. Before we moved back to Hamilton County we started our celebration by a trip to our favorite Mexican restaurant in Ft. Walton. Usually Santa would see us leave and would deliver the gifts to our home after we had done our annual drive around. After we moved here, we included the larger family in our Christmas Eve celebrations. Christmas day was low key. We included a birthday cake for Jesus. This was originally one of the boy's idea since it was a birthday celebration. Many Christmases we never got out of pajamas for the day.
So, this year will be a little different, but it will still be good because it is still Christmas. We will sit in a candlelit room with the sound of soft music, and Klep will take down the Bible and read the Christmas story from Luke. Therein is the true spirit of Christmas in those words which begin "And in those days, it came to pass..."
We will feel the peace, love, hope, and joy that that simple story gives us. It will spread over us and we will be blessed.
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