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A quote: “Christmas, my child, is love in action. Every time we love, every time we give, it’s Christmas.” ~~ Dale Evans
I’ll start with a story …
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The girl shivering on the porch had to be a ghost, but …
“Paki?”
“Hello, grandma.”
I ushered her in, still shaken over how much she was version 2.0 of her mom at that age. We hadn’t seen our daughter in over ten years. She had decided our old fogey ways were just too much for her to bear.
“Grandpa?” He came out of his chair, gathering us in a tight hug.
Paki was drawn to the Nativity on the mantle, gently touching the baby in the manger and turned to us with questioning eyes.
“Merry Christmas, Paki. Welcome home.”
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Now, it’s your turn.
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. featured image, cropped, Adobe Stock standard license.
Navig8r says: “Mommy, Daddy, I’m glad you invited that guy from the shelter to share our Christmas dinner. Brother and I felt kinda awkward, but it sure let us know how thankful we should be for what we have.”
“He was trying so hard to be polite, and thanking us for everything, but there was so much he didn’t know. Did you see how he held his fork?”
“And he didn’t take off his shoes at the door. It was almost like he was born in a barn.”
“Think about it, dears. He would be in very good company if he were.”
Dupin says: “So that’s the Baby Jesus from 6 CE.”
“Like 6 AD? What’re you smoking?”
“No Magi, so it’s from Luke 2:2. Quirinius was governor of Syria. Census was 6 Anno Domini.”
“That makes no sense.”
“It’s in the Bible, so it must be true.”
“I don’t know.”
“Of course, the Magi probably came later, so maybe Matthew 2 with Herod the Great, but he died in 4 BCE or Before Christ. That means Baby Jesus was born four years before or six years after Year Zero Anno Domini. Your choice.”
“My choice?”
“Luke or Matthew. Or decide it doesn’t matter.”
Cameron says: This is my first Christmas without my folks. Mom died early in the year and dad couldn’t go on. I had to drop out of college and attend to things as I was the only single kid in the family.
Affairs were pretty much settled by October. And I was given the nativity. When I was a little kid, I asked why Jesus was born if it meant he was going to die.
“To give us hope,” mom answered.
I’m single and far from the home I grew up in. But now I understand what she meant. Merry Christmas, everyone.
Elaine hadn’t been sure what to expect out of Christmas here in Silicon Valley. No snow, other than on the mountaintops, that was for certain.
But what really nagged at her was what kind of a celebration the Alandales would have, and what part she would have in it. Ted Alandale was a preacher’s son, like his ur-brother, Robert Noyce — but like him, Ted had slipped away from formal religious observance. Elaine’s impression of his personal beliefs was a deism more like that of Benjamin Franklin.
So there wouldn’t be any Christmas Eve service to attend, which would feel strange, but in some ways it was an improvement over Brother Jespersen’s narrow-eyed looks in the fellowship hall afterward, as if he thought that she would somehow soil the trays of cookies and sliced cakes merely by picking up her choices.
But there was still the question of how much she would be included in the family’s celebration here at home. She’d turned eighteen In September, and was now just rooming here because of the housing shortage, thanks to Sharps from all over the country coming to a state where they weren’t stigmatized for existing. She paid room and board from her wages as a part-time psychic, but she had a fair reason to believe that it was in fact a token amount that didn’t cover the additional utilities costs her presence incurred, let alone an adult’s share of the mortgage.
So she was astonished on Christmas morning to discover just how many of the presents under the tree were hers. Not just practical things like two new Tarot decks and a couple of American Society for Parapsychological Investigation publications, or clothes to wear as she finished her senior year of high school and prepared for college, but also fun things like manga, anime and cosplay accessories.
As she sat at the table, writing her thank-you notes alongside the Alandales’ children, she realized just how many people had sent her something. Not just her found family, but also her teachers at school, her Institute trainers, even her boss at the metaphysical shop. And all of them had sent the presents here, so she would be able to open them on Christmas Day.
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