Christmas - ALIVE and WELL

     This farm girl is filled with holiday nostalgia of yesteryear!  Kalina's homework was to interview me about favorite Christmas memories.  The interview lasted for hours.  I would love to have tallied the number of questions asked by the kids and the quick responses to my brain that had not surfaced forever!  These stories came alive last night - not a creature was stirring!  Oh, the POWER of STORY!  And there is nothing better than a TRUE one! 

     A cherished Christmas was the one before Robbie left on his mission.  He received gift after gift of mission import.  He had a stack bigger than any of the rest of us, but a drudge upon his face, a gludge exuding from body language, and Bah Humbug voiced about having to grow up.  Predicted presents were a DRAG!  How much more awful could the day be?  

     Robbie, the usual go-getter, was in NO HURRY to return to the farm after the holiday brunch at Grandma and Grandpa's.  There was nothing to go home and DO!  So, we didn't return to the farmhouse until mid afternoon.  That was when the large bow was spied tucked inside the tree.  Attached was a string of yarn and a note of invitation to follow the yarn whithersoever it trailed.  The ensuing extravaganza of trying to keep up with Robbie while he went ditch dodging, fence flying, and pasture parting was more fun and holds more memory than the now forgotten toys we received that day! 

      The milkhouse became the spot marking X for an ONLY IN MY DREAMS 22!  No sister was allowed to get close enough to the cherished gun to give any details about it, but I am a witness to the sheer humility of one older brother as he realized that Christmas was ALIVE and WELL!

     Another Christmas memory happened in our dear Pioneer Home of Provo while Dad received his higher education.  We had to have been POOR, but Mom and Dad didn't let on.  Margaret (our Canadian Mary Poppins) and Albert (her Famous Canadian Hockey-star Husband) became our holiday angels!  No detail of a wonderful holiday spirit or tradition was left unturned!  We rode in their empty shell, carpeted interior van all the way to Temple Square to see the lights.  These sweet Canadian Christians were attending BYU with Dad and had arrived in Provo because of "divine providence!" (Their exact words.)  They wanted to witness the tradition of a Utah Christmas, and saw to it that we were allowed to come along for the ride. A perfect Christmas dinner at their small apartment along with a HUGE bag of Christmas surprises at our doorstep on Christmas Eve were portions of their good deeds.  As a recipient of someone's love and care, I know that true Christianity packs a powerful impact.  I will always love the Murray's!  Christmas was ALIVE and WELL!

     May I continue the tradition of a Christmas that is ALIVE and WELL!