The Spirit of Christmas

It’s the subtle things, isn’t it? I read a friend’s facebook post about how her neighbor boy shoveled mountains of snow off her walks and driveway while she was off at school and her husband was at work. It made me smile. What a good kid! Sipping the spirit of Christmas.

At Aldi (grocery store), you have to put a quarter in the lock to free up a shopping cart. When you slip the lock back in place when you return your cart, you get your quarter back. It saves money because nobody has to police the parking lot. I’m always protective of my Aldi cart quarter. It’s such a pain to scrounge enough change to exchange it for a quarter to get a cart. But there are half a dozen carts in the rows these days that have quarters in them already. Even so, a lady gave me her cart and refused my quarter. It’s a tiny act, but my heart lilts.

The peanut butter wagon that’s making it’s way to the Regional Food bank was filled to overflowing at the Office of Emergency Management lunch on Wednesday. Good people caring about their needy neighbors is the spirit of Christmas.

My little 19-month-old grandson discovered the new tree in grandma and grandpa’s house that grows toys and candy canes! He tested about 6 of the candy canes and found them all genuine.
His new baby sister is healthy and sweet tempered. Babies go well with Christmas.

Scott’s boys were delighted to find the dutch wooden shoes I keep in my entryway filled with candy, too. They are reportedly having a ball at their Peterson grandparents in Oregon. They’re making the happy memories that will carry them through all their adulthood Christmas’s.

Son Rob tore his Achilles tendon (total rupture) last week, (playing basketball on his lunch hour at the MTC)  but he’s coming through it all right. The surgery took several hours, but the surgeon says he’ll be okay. A neighbor had his walks and driveway all cleared of the 8″ of snow before breakfast on Christmas day.

We had a party at our house a week before Christmas. It was a casual affair, with everyone bringing a treat to share followed by a game of “Dirty Santa”, as it’s called here in Oklahoma. We’d always called it a White Elephant exchange. There was lots of recipe swapping, sports chatter, laughter and good will. I always feel happy to have people I love in my home. It’s silly and superficial of me to be so pleased, but it tickled me that the guests swooned over my cinnamon rolls. (The recipe is posted per their request. They are so divine!)

.

BYU collapsed in the first quarter in the Las Vegas bowl against their arch-nemesis Utah. They dominated the rest of the game, but they couldn’t quite fight all the way back from the 5 turnovers resulting in scores from the first 8 minutes. But the good news is that the new head coach is assembling a dream team of assistants and next year should be FUN.

But all in all, the deep religious joy that comes when I think of God’s gift of His divine son, everything shrinks and fades and I’m left to worship quietly beside a rustic manger.