A Christmas Memory

Our 7:14 Group met last Thursday for our annual Christmas meeting. We met this time at Charley and Shirley's home and Charley cooked salmon and a turkey on his big green egg thingy.  Man was it good!  The rest of us brought good eats to supplement Charley's feast and fun was had by all.  After we ate we gathered in their living room around the piano and Shirley played Christmas carols while we sang.  Another blessing!  Then Shirley asked if anyone would share their favorite Christmas memory.  I had two but didn't want to take up other people's time so I only shared one.  It is my plan to share the second one with you here and now in the next paragraph or two.

It was the Christmas of 1946.  I was fourteen at the time.  It was my duty to keep the four fireplaces that heated our house going at all times, including some times that l had to rekindle in the middle of the night.  Believe it or not I loved that chore.  I sometimes would get the fires going and then sit in a rocking chair we had and dream in front of the fireplace in my room.  I learned to enjoy solitude at that early age.  And I thought that it could not get any better.

But it did!

You see that was the year that my first niece was born.  On that Christmas Eve Marjorie Jean Nelson came into my life.  Her dad was in the navy and could not be with us that time and her mother, my sister Bette, was living with us.  Her crib was in my room.  So when I would get up at night to tend to the fires I would then go to Marty's crib and check on her.  If she was fussy I would pick her up, change her diaper, wrap her in a warm blanket and sit with her in my lap as we both dreamed together.  She was (and still is) beautiful.  She would look up at me and smile.  I was certain that it was because she loved me. She would cuddle in my arms and sort of coo as she would fall back to sleep.  I would hold her until my arms could no longer take it and then gently lay her back in her crib.  I would wrap her in another blanket until I was sure she was warm enough, kiss her sweet cheek, and then hum an almost quiet song until her eyes were completely closed for the night.  She was my little girl and I loved her more than I can explain here.

So where is she now.  Well she grew up, married well to a very caring man and is now a great grandmother.  I am certain that everyone who knows her loves her but she is still my little girl.  

So there you have my memory.  Now each year on Christmas Eve I celebrate the birth of a baby that has meant much, much to me and then the next day I celebrate the birth of the Christ child, the most important baby ever to me.  I think that is why I love children so much today.  I am foolosh enough to think that they love me as well.  Isn't life a wonderful thing?