Have a Jolly Good Christmas!

It is Christmas Eve!  Old Santa is busy flying from town to town delivering the many toys that the elves spent the last year making.  By this time of evening, he has probably already visited at least a million homes. A lot of the stockings have already been filled and multitudes of toys have been stacked beneath adorned trees.  Good Old Santa!  He always plows through even when the rest of us get bogged down with the stress of the holidays.

Several times when the children were small, Mark had to miss spending Christmas with us due to his job on the riverboat.  It was hard for us all. He has always loved the outside decorating and the shopping and without his helping hand, those jobs were difficult for me.  I muddled through, though, and the children awoke to happy surprises on Christmas Morn.  I did have the advantage of having my brother live right next door.  On one of the Christmases that Mark was away, I told my brother how hard it was to get the children to sleep on Christmas Eve.  If they did not get to bed early enough, I would never get everything finished in time.  Well, just about seven o'clock that evening and just after their prayers were said, I heard something strange outside the window.  Bells!  Jingle bells!  Oh, my goodness!  I have never seen kids clamor so fast to get under the covers and close their eyes!  Old Santa was already in the neighborhood!  They had better not be awake when he got to our rooftop!  Yep, Jimmy was out ringing those bells for all he was worth!  Brothers sure are good!  The next morning, bright and early, he was at the door.  "Are the kids up yet?" he asked.  When I told him that they were still upstairs fast asleep, he charged up those stairs like a wild man!  "Get up! Get up!! Santa came!!! Santa came!!!"  Yep, brothers are great!  The kids flew downstairs to get their toys and my brother got to share in their excitement.  He probably does not even remember these antics but I remember it as an act of kindness and my kids still talk about hearing "Santa" that night.

This year, it is just the opposite.  Mark is home but with the exception of Michael, our other kids are not here.  Of course, all of the "kids" are grown so that does have a tendency to change things a bit.  They are all busy with their own lives and sometimes it just does not work out that their schedules coincide with ours and the holidays.   Still, the holidays come and go.  They are just a bit different.  Since my kids are not here, my brother will not be outside ringing bells nor will he be waking up the little ones tomorrow morning.  Santa won't pay a visit to the Little Bayou House nor will toys be piled beneath the tree.  But one thing is for sure.  Christmas will always be on time.  We will celebrate Jesus' birth and rejoice in His love.  Merry Christmas, Folks.  May your holidays be filled with joy and may you always find a reason to celebrate.