The first 3 installments of this story were published: Nov. 30; Dec 7; Dec 14. Today is the conclusion.
The days slowly drug by in a flurry of assignments and tests as teachers purposefully piled on the work the three weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks. The teachers all insisted they were on a time schedule for completing assignments, but everyone knew it was a thinly disguised attempt at keeping the level of excitement down. Holidays brought exuberant spirits and rowdy students and teachers with short tempers. It was a fine line between excitement and out of control, but with years of experience, the teachers rallied to snap the students back into line.
The days slowly drug by in a flurry of assignments and tests as teachers purposefully piled on the work the three weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks. The teachers all insisted they were on a time schedule for completing assignments, but everyone knew it was a thinly disguised attempt at keeping the level of excitement down. Holidays brought exuberant spirits and rowdy students and teachers with short tempers. It was a fine line between excitement and out of control, but with years of experience, the teachers rallied to snap the students back into line.
All of Emma’s
friends spent all of their recess time talking over the coming Christmas holidays
and the wonderful plans their families had.
Many of her friends had huge families, all in the local area, and their
stories of everyone gathering to feast and celebrate sounded like heaven. Farm families were often huge families, which
led to more aunts and uncles and cousins than she could even imagine. You had to be very careful what you said
about anyone, there was always a a good chance they might be related. Emma’s family was small. The few local cousins were grown and gone from home and the cousins from her Mama’s side lived far away.
School was out for
two weeks starting just a little less than a week before Christmas. With the last day of school came the annual
school party. Emma had drawn the name of
a friend and kept her drawing a secret. She had
the perfect gift selected at the local five and dime and could not wait for her
friend to discover what Emma had picked out. Christmas cookies, drinks, candy, singing and
fun Christmas games filled the day with very little school work happening. Mr.
Bill, her bus driver gave each rider an orange or apple, you got to pick which you preferred. Her teacher gave each student a candy
cane. The celebration day passed quickly
and it was time to ride the bus home and start the two weeks of Christmas vacation.
Emma and her
brothers went home to a quiet, still house with only the tree that Emma had put
up. No wonderful smells from the kitchen
in preparation for a huge feast and no gifts under the tree. The twinkle of the lights as she plugged in
the tree was the only brief nod to the magical day. The days passed slowly as her mother left
early for work with a long list on the table of chores to be done. Emma’s mama believed in keeping everyone busy
and out of trouble. With a long face,
Emma tackled the long list and wondered where the was magic?
The days continued
to be cloudy and dreary with a cold wind from the north and an occasional
drizzle. It was too cold to play outside
and Emma’s neighborhood friends were all too busy with family celebrations to
play. Curled by the blazing hot fire,
Emma read yet another book to pass the time.
Everyday seemed the same as the day before; it could have been June
except for the cold of the day.
Christmas Eve
finally arrived and Emma’s thoughts replayed the Christmas memories from years
before. All good memories to be sure,
but still left with a hole with the sad realization of what this Christmas
without her daddy had ended up being.
There was no going back and the memories would have to fill the void
that was huge. Silent tears fell that
bleak Christmas Eve day as Emma prayed for a glimpse of the Christmas miracle
of long ago. The house was silent as
they went to bed that Christmas Eve-no chatter, no laughter, and no smells from
the kitchen. It was a Christmas with no magic, only the stillness of the deep dark night surrounded them as their eyes
closed in sleep.
Emma’s eyes slowly
opened as Christmas dawned dark and silent.
She pulled on her slippers and robe to run build a fire to ward off the
cold. As she stepped out the door in the
frigid of the morn, a miracle---snow covered the ground. Snow as white as the robes of the angels
several inches deep filled the
trees, and blanketed the road. A
beautiful white wonderland of Christmas shown all around with bushes of holly
berries adding bright red in the midst of the world in white and the sweet song of birds
of many colors flying all around were as sweet as carols sung by angels. The snow was still falling and as it slowly –silently
fell there was a hush of wonder in the early Christmas day.
As she brought the
wood, all covered with snow, back into the house, she looked at the pond down
the hill next to the house. It was frozen
with a thick coat of ice. It was pure
white as far as the eye could see—a glorious white Christmas had happened that
night. Running back into the house
heading to change into warm clothes, Emma was filled with joyful anticipation of the day playing in
the snow.
As she rounded the
corner and peered at the tree, there were gifts rounding the bottom, under the
lights. What a surprise! It seems someone mysteriously had dropped off gifts for
her family late last night without a word.
Her Mama had heard a knock on the door and opened it to find no one
there—only boxes of gifts to place under the tree. Excited to open any present at all, Emma and
her brothers tore into them all. Games,
books and gloves for them all and even a scarf for Mama appeared that day.
They played in the
snow the entire day, running in and out to get warm. It was a wonderful day filled with fun as
they slid down the hill on their improvised sled of cardboard and made a huge
snowman –carrot, hat and all. How
strange and unusual to have snow in Louisiana at Christmas, but no one would
question how this could be—instead just enjoyed the blessing of the day.
A warm supper of
chili waited as they finally came in at dark.
The aroma from the kitchen reminding them of their hunger as they
traipsed in at the end of the day. A
warm fire blazing and hot chocolate before bed after a long exhausting-fun
filled day, ended that first Christmas without their sweet Daddy.
As Emma snuggled
under the covers that night and began to say her prayers, it finally occurred to
her what had happened. God had heard her
prayers and knew her sorrow. He gave
them the magic of Christmas as only He could.
He reminded her of His great gift long ago of a small sweet baby, while giving her
one of the best Christmases ever.
Christmas magic had once again appeared as He answered her prayers and
loved her so well while reminding her of His great and deep love for her—with a
perfect Christmas day.
Wonderful . Just . Wonderful!
ReplyDeleteMay this be a sweet advent weekend for you and the ones you love, Lulu ...