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Christmas is absolutely one of my favorite times of the year. It’s not the gifts, but the Spirit of Christmas that makes this time of
year so amazing. Christmas time is when we are reminded to focus not on ourselves, turn our attention to the needs of our neighbors. Whether its donating toys to charity, dropping your spare change in the Salvation Army bucket, working a soup line, or just inviting someone who’s alone into your lives for a day, the greatness of the human spirit is awakened for a few weeks every year at the end of December.
Our first Christmas with Jake, was reason to for me give pause this year and be grateful for all I have. When I was a younger, I used to
wonder what my life would be like in the year 2000. What would my family be like? I couldn’t imagine ever being able to provide for them the way my parents provided for me.
Several Days ago I sat in our new Lazy Boy chair (thanks to the parents), Jake was asleep in my arms, there was a fire in our fire place, and I was admiring the Christmas tree we had just
put up. Out the window fell a beautiful blanket of fresh white snow. I choked up a bit and I fought back some tears (I couldn’t let Sue see that), and I thought to
myself, “This is very cool. This is what my life has always been about.”
Now, it’s not like I think I live in some Rockwell painting or anything. As a matter of fact, about an hour later, the entire house was
filled with smoke and I had managed to permanently mar one of the dining room chairs with ash from the fireplace (which was backing all the smoke into the house instead of out the chimney). Life is nothing if not ironic. One minute, I’m thinking how awesome I’ve got it. The next minute, I’m running through my living room with a burring log on the fire place grate, on my way out the door. If it weren’t for the fact that I could’ve burned the house down, that would’ve been really funny.
Well, now that I’ve finished that book, I’d like to wish all of our friends and family a Merry Christmas and Happy
Holidays. To those of you living far away, we miss you. Take care. Love--Jake, Susan, & Keil.
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