Our Christmas Story

Our local radio station, 99.9 KEZ plays Christmas music from Thanksgiving right up until Christmas Day. We found ourselves enjoying the Yuletide carols on our way home from Grammy and Papa’s Christmas Eve Dinner Party. A touching story came on about a family of three. A single mom and her two kids weren’t going to have much of a Christmas. She lost her job right before Christmas and was concerned as to what they were going to do for Christmas dinner, let alone purchasing Christmas presents for her kids. Christmas Eve came around and some of the mom’s friends came over to visit. The next day was Christmas and they were planning on spending it alone with each other. They didn’t even have a Christmas tree. Christmas night came and to their surprise, Santa came knocking at the door. He came bearing Christmas dinner and gifts. “How did he know?” said Delilah the radio host. “A Christmas angel must have told him,” the daughter replied.
I turned to my wife Shiloh to see her about to shed a tear. It really was a touching story and we could relate to the struggle. As we pulled up to our driveway Shiloh then broke into tears when we saw the box of Christmas gifts left for us by our front door. You see, September 12, 2008 I lost my job. Two months of unemployment put us in a unique situation that we hadn’t experienced yet. We were still trying to pay off the late payments and debt that we had accumulated and needless to say Christmas was starting to fall off the radar. Twelve days before Christmas we started receiving parts to a Nativity Scene and delicious little goodies. It was fun for us. Shiloh really wanted to investigate and find out who was leaving us all these holiday goodies. We actually pulled up one night while they were leaving something but I kept driving. We couldn’t make out who it was and that made the suspense even greater. Christmas Eve came around and Shiloh and I had scrounged up enough money to buy T.J. one gift. All T.J., my son wanted for Christmas was a Razor Scooter. We made that happen but that was really the only gift that was to be received on Christmas. You see, our daughter Pammie was only nine months old, so we could get away with not getting her anything. Shiloh and I are big kids and we too could handle not getting anything for Christmas. Though we had already accepted the fact that Christmas was going to be a rough one, we still felt the sadness of not being able to really do Christmas that year. That night we were reminded what Christmas is all about. Someone, maybe St. Nick gave us the Christmas we thought wasn’t coming that year. Shiloh and I felt so loved and so blessed.
We know that regardless of who was responsible for the gifts, our Heavenly Father blessed us through the kindness of others. Christmas really isn’t about Santa Clause and eight tiny reindeer. It is about loving our Heavenly Father and about loving our neighbor. Merry Christmas.