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my plastic dinosaur


swilkinson

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MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO COME.

 

Well Christmas Day is past. All that shopping, cleaning, worrying that: "Will this one like this or that one like that?" is over for another year. Thank goodness. I love Christmas but the build up to it drives me crazy. I think this year everyone was pleased with their gifts and that makes life pleasanter. I hate that sigh that some people give when you give them their present or when they roll their eyes as if to say; "What IS this?" None of that happened this year.

 

This year we had the 18month old Oliver and 2 1/2 year old Alex enjoying Christmas at a fast and furious pace. We cried: "No Alex, don't Oliver" to no avail as they did what little boys do - run riot. The presents got the paper torn off them before the receiver had a chance to unwrap them, they found the food before we got to them etc. It made for a very highly charged Christmas Day but we survived it and are all still friends and next year they will be one year older....

 

Our minister at church started his sermon with a story: "I was talking to a member of the congregation last year and he said; "Christmas isn't the same any more, you spend all that time shopping and then get really silly presents yourself. I don't think the food is as good, the bon bons don't contain any decent jokes and after lunch no-one wants to spend time with you watching a movie or playing board games with you." And he was just eleven!"

 

The gist of his sermon was that we needed to remember the "gift of poverty" that comes to us every Christmas. There are many in our rich society with little food or earthly goods, who make the most of what is around them. The stable for a birthing room, imagine the smell! if you have ever been in a cattle barn you will know what I mean. And the visitors - a bunch of smelly shepherds. The kings or whatever you would call those foreign strangers, came much later.

 

So we are called on to be poor in the sense that we treat whatever gifts we receive as a bonus. We don't exchange gifts, we give and sometimes we receive. This all makes sense if you are a mature adult ( old) like me. I spend weeks trying to get the right gift and get some really odd ones in exchange. But over the years I have used, worn or roasted in or ironed with most of them...lol.

 

Today when I went into the dining/living room I packed most of my gifts away: a ceramic planter with cacti I put on the kitchen shelf,a Christmas plate I still have to buy a stand for, the Santa photos I put in an old frame. The step ladder Trev bought last week I have already used to fetch the decorations down from the top cupboards and the dress I chose and Ray paid for will be my party special for this summer. The northern family haven't sent their parcel yet so we wll have more to open in the future.

 

When I sat down for breakfast my plate didn't sit straight so I moved it and there was a plastic dinosaur. I think it came out of the Christmas bon bons, but not mine as I had a lobster on a key ring. So someone had put down the dinosaur and left it behind. It gives me something to play with I guess...lol. And something to think about to. The value of the little things that amuse us and help us keep our sense of humour when the going gets tough.

 

Ray survived Christmas Day though I think the noise was a bit hard for him to take. He had some family phone calls and we rang one brother who had been away for the day. Our daughter rang late in the evening and told us a bit about her day, it was very hot and humid there so they had hot food, cold wilting salads etc, shared with Craig's mum and brother and another couple from the church. Salvation Army Corps officers are suppose to have any corps members who are going to be alone to dine with them on Christmas Day, it's an old fashioned rule and probably not much adhered to today but another reminder they are called to help the poor.

 

We are not poor, we have more than enough to cover our basic needs. We are rich in friends and companions on the journey including those well-wishers who will read this.

 

Bless you all.

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What a great day Sue, so glad you could share in the activities and still enjoy for you and Ray. Happy New 2009. "The gift of poverty and No room in the Inn, having to be born in a manger really says something."

 

For us here in the States, we have a new Commander-N-Chief and two wars going and a sinking Economy. It all adds up to "I hope we survive somehow"!

 

And Bless you and your family Sue! I don't know how to get those red colors or bigger print, last time I pushed a bunch of buttons, it cost me 200.00 to fix my computer by the Geek Squad. I vowed "no more. I just do what I know."

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Sue,

 

I'm glad your Christmas went well. There was such a disparity in gift giving from what we could afford versus what others did. What we did for everyone was small but had special meaning from the heart. Nothing was left behind either, from what I could tell.

 

Wishing you and Ray a just fine 2009.

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