Christmas 1981
The news hit us hard. Everything in our busy lives faded from our minds as our thoughts were consumed with one new haunting fact. Patty had a large tumor that required a hysterectomy. She was twenty-five.
We got married very young. Patty was only eighteen. I was all of twenty. By this the time we had two children, a girl and a boy, ages four and two.
She was an ER nurse and I was finishing college and working part time.
We didn’t have time for a hospitalization. So, we planned it during Christmas break.
In those days, we lived over an hour and half from our parents and they both expected us to spend equal time with them (at least). So, visits were always a chore with two little kids, a long drive, and fiercely competitive parents.
That year, we spent Christmas Day in St. Joseph’s Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri. We ate Christmas Dinner together, side-by-side in her room, while celebrating a successful surgery and watching the Kennedy Center Honors on TV. Victor Borge was inducted that year. Patty only hurt when she laughed. The food was good. The program was hilarious. It was peaceful there in the hospital as the patient census was very low due to the holiday.
We had no demands, just each other.
We felt blessed.
Christmas 2004
We had two beautiful step-granddaughters, but we were about to experience the first Christmas with our less than one month old grandson. We always had Christmas here at our home north of Chicago, but the kids lived way up in St. Paul, Minnesota and the weather was bad. We didn’t know if the highways would be clear enough for them to make it.
Patty and I were more excited than two little kids expecting an extravagant Christmas gift. I kept playing “This Christmas Day“ by Tran Siberian Orchestra over and over. There is a line in the song, “She’s (our daughter) coming home this Christmas Day.”
That song has moved me to tears and goosebumps so many times as we embraced the gift of a most precious baby boy.
He is now twenty and doing well at university.
We felt blessed.
Christmas 2015-ish
For over forty years we celebrated Christmas with the entire family at home on Christmas Eve. We would eat good food, read the Christmas story from Luke 2, and open presents.
The tradition began with steaks cooked on the grill. As the family grew, the steaks turned into kabobs.
It’s almost always very cold at Christmas time here, but tradition demanded cooking the kabobs on the grill. So, I would wheel it out of the garage and fire it up. It’s a job for my son, Nathan, and me.
Something happens out there between father and son as we freeze our butts off. While the inside of the house is filled with frenzied activity and chatter, the cold outdoors is peaceful and focused with just two people.
We enjoy the man time and have admitted to each other, it is our favorite time.
Now my Son-in-Law, Jared joins us too.
We felt blessed.
Christmas 2019
We were called back to Missouri as Mom faced her last few days on earth. She was only a tiny bit conscious at times. Her body was shutting down. Patty, Michelle, and I were keeping vigil wondering if each breath would be her last.
She passed away while Michelle and I returned to the hotel on an errand. Patty called letting me know Mom had slipped away from this life into the next. She thought she waited to let go until I left. It was the day before Christmas Eve. The kids came. The arrangements were made. The funeral would be the day after Christmas. We had no Christmas plans, no place for Christmas.
My cousin who had sat with mom until we arrived invited us to her home for Christmas Dinner. Her son and his family were visiting from Austria. Little Sebastian was running around as conversations ensued in English and German. They are all delightful, gracious people.
They adopted us into their family.
Even in our grief, we felt blessed.
Christmas 4BC
God came low, real low. Humanity low. Poverty low. Nobody low. So low hardly anyone recognized him. His few initial followers were also low, some foreign mystics, some sheepherders who were regarded as untrustworthy, and a faithful elderly couple.
He was born into a corrupt religious system and a country occupied by a ruthless foreign superpower. hristmasIt was all as intended, the high taxes, the horrible government, the religious leaders amassing power and wealth.
It’s not the end of the story. He was killed. He did rise.
It’s not about being good enough or having faith enough.
It’s about embracing him.
We are blessed.
