A Poignant Christmas Moment to Cherish

I haven't been writing a lot of blogs lately due to family commitments and that I have had little to share. Perhaps that will change with the New Year and I will resume trying to improve education in the community even above its current high level. However, an event occurred Christmas Day that I feel that should be shared.

I am a latecomer to my wife's family. Most of the adults and older children still grieve a bit at Christmastime for her late husband as he cherished the season and the season brings back the memories. These happy but yet sad memories will never be lost, but other more recent ones will lessen their dampening effect on the family. I think that we experienced one of those this Christmas.

Our youngest granddaughter turns 12 this New Year's Eve. She has been wanting a cell-phone so badly she can taste it. Everyone else in the family has one, but her elder sister has told her that she cannot have one until she is 13 as that is how old she was when she got her first one. The elder sister miscalculated. Her late grandfather and her grandmother gave her the first cell phone the last Christmas before he passed away but he did not see her thirteenth Christmas.

After discussing it with the girl's parents, my wife and I bought her a cell phone. We got it all charged up and, knowing that her parents was giving her a Wii game system, we put it in a Wii game system box before wrapping it.

On Christmas Day, the family gathers at our house for a light meal and to share in the opening of gifts after the private Christmas morning celebration held within each of our children's households. After the meal, gifts are distributed from under our Christmas tree and we take turns opening them starting with the youngest person present. This year, our youngest granddaughter opened hers first.

She opened a couple of small gifts and laid them aside, and then she picked up the gift-wrapped Wii box. My wife pulled out her cell phone to ring the phone in it, not knowing that I had thought of that scenario and envisioned the box going flying before the granddaughter realized what was happening, the cell phone getting broke, and so had ensured that the phone was off before it was wrapped. The young lady rips off the wrapping and says, "I wanted a Wii and now I have two! We can have one in the living room and I can have one in my room! Cool!" She starts to lay it aside when someone says, "open the box to make sure everything is there." She opened the box, slid the contents into her lap, and froze. It seemed like the entire house went absolutely silent for ten to fifteen seconds as the family waited for her reaction, I don't think that even our three dogs breathed. With tears welling in her eyes, she raised her head to look at her mother and in a quavering voice asked, "Can I have it?" Her mother had tears in her eyes as she said, "yes," as did every adult in the room.

In my years, I cannot think of a moment concerning Christmas that rivals that one. I have precious memories of the year my son, as a toddler, received gifts from everyone that visited for several days and asked the first person who did not bring him a gift "Where's my present" like it was the toll to enter the house; but even that does not highlight the meaning of Christmas as does the surprise on our granddaughter's face and the joy that put in my heart.

Christmas is about family, friends, and the joy of giving. I hope and pray that yours was merry and the memories made were precious.