Thanks for sharing, Kathy, that the simple pleasures are sometimes the best,
and that bringing joy to others in the Name of JESUS is what it's all about.

Paul
----- Original Message -----
From: "Kathy Du Bois" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, December 24, 2003 1:27 PM
Subject: Re: MOST MEMORABLE CHRISTMAS


> Paul,
> My favorite Christmas was in 1989. Oddly enough, as I tell you about it,
> it really isn't anything special, but emotionally, it was the best for
> me.
> I grew up on a farm so I suppose that you could say that I really did
> have a story book Christmas of sorts. Since I went to school about 400
> miles away, Christmas was one of the few times of year that I was
> actually home growing up, but the house was always too full of family for
> me. People would come by that I didn't know very well and I would often
> just take my guitar into my bedroom and sing for my own pleasure. The
> nieces and nephews would show up and we would always sing fun stuff. They
> always loved Puff the Magic Dragon so we would sing that more than once.
> Those christmases just weren't overly special for some reason.
> When Greg and I got married, we were very poor. We would save up money to
> fly out to New York for Christmas so that we could visit with his folks,
> but we didn't get gifts for each other for probably the first five years
> of our marriage. Finally after being married about two years, we moved
> near my parents home and I began teaching, but I wasn't working full time
> and Greg couldn't find a full time job either so we still had pretty
> sparse Christmases. We didn't even have a tree until we had been married
> for five years. One year doesn't count I suppose because we were
> remodeling so our livingroom didn't even have any walls at all and it
> just seemed silly to put a tree in the middle of all that.
> In 1989, however, we were just so happy. We had two healthy boys, a tree
> and I was pregnant with my third. We had money to put real gifts under
> the tree and not just used stuff from Goodwill either. I was choir
> director at the church that we were attending and the Christmas eve
> service was just so full of music and candles and warmth and meaning. The
> next morning, it felt like a real Christmas. We didn't visit family, but
> just stayed together and enjoyed a relaxing day. In the afternoon, we
> packed the two boys in a sled and pulled it down to a local nursing home
> to wish everybody a merry Christmas. The whole day just seemed so
> complete somehow.
> In january, I miscarried and then in March, Greg firmly decided that he
> was sensing a call to full time ministry. By July, we had moved back to
> Grand Rapids so that Greg could continue schooling and then it was on to
> Chicago. Back came the familiar feeling of not having quite enough and
> being uncertain of our future.
> Now that we're here in Maine, we have accepted the fact that we cannot go
> back to my folks for Christmas because we are needed here, and we are
> slowly making Maine a home. Always though, in the background, is that
> sense that we may be asked to move on. As the kids get older the pace of
> life gets more hectic. We really have to work at keeping the meaning of
> Christmas alive.
> Tomorrow we are going to take a ppoinsettia to one of our ladies who is
> in a nursing home here in Bangor. We're hoping that Caleb and Liz will
> come along. It just seems better when you can bring a little joy to
> others.
> Merry Christmas,
> Kathy
>
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