Sunday, December 20, 2009

Merry Christmas

Tis the season.

Our friend and neighbor Sally has made our Christmas. She tries each and every year, but this year she has made a huge wish come true. She went all out to surprise us.......... and someone she doesn't even know. This year Sally wanted to give. Every year she wants to give to us, and we do enjoy her generous gift, but this year she surprised us, really surprised us!

Sally has a nurse come in every couple of days to check in on her, as Sally is eighty one. This year, this nurse, Angel, provided the cause to drive Sal to give to someone that truly needs help, in doing so her desires were fulfilled. Sally got the idea to ask Angel if Angel knew of a family that was not doing so well. A family with kids. Angel did. Another family that Angel visits, another elderly woman, with a daughter who has three children and are very poor. Angel thinks well of them and sees their dismal condition. So Sally volunteers to help with their Christmas. Sally asks Angel to go to the young mother and tell her of her desire. The mother responds graciously and provides a letter explaining that she did not think that her kids would have a very good Christmas this year. Included in the letter is a list of things that her kids would like to receive this Christmas Season, she did this at Sally's request, as Sally would not know what kids would like these days. The list was pretty simple and it gave her a mission to set out to achieve and she did so with gusto! Since Sally no longer drives her car, that task was asked of us. Sally made calls to find the things on the list, made arrangements to buy these things and off we went (mainly Steve since I have been so busy finishing school lately ). Toys, a donated kids bike, a garage sale fishing pole, all the stuff on the list. And Sally's big idea of a gift card from a shoe store, (Steve went in on half of that one and bought some of the toys too). Today we had a gift wrapping party with Sal's nurse, her partner Laura, me and Steve. It was a blast! We all had the time of our lives, picking what we thought each kid would like most and what was appropriate for whom. Steve and the girls did the wrapping, I did the bowing and labeling while Sally watched, glowing so happily.

I don't think I had a better Christmas since I was that young. Fulfilling the dreams of children..... I remember the total excitement I got just before Christmas. I babbled about all the toys I just had to have....my brother and friends spent all of our time on what would be the best that year. The excitement was overwhelming. The tree, the lights, the songs, family and the idea that Santa Claus was coming down our chimney to answer all my dreams. I made sure we had the right homemade chocolate chip cookies laid out for his arrival, two for him and one for all the reindeer, including Rudolph. For this was an ordeal I had learned from my mother. I think it was really important for her to give her kids an American Christmas that she, I'm sure, only dreamed of when she was a little girl of ten kids. My mother was able to make dreams come true for me as a boy.

Now, Thanks to Sally, I somehow feel I contributed to this Holiday too. It's times and deeds like this that make the heart feel so warm and loved. It carries on, lives, is forever remembered, as I see and I know, it will get passed down the line.

Sally gave me the most wonderful gift this year with her heart.
I must not forget, there was an Angel that helped too.

Merry Christmas!