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Christmas
is a Special Timeby Murray Montgomery
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Christmas
has always been a special time of the year in our family. Getting
together with our loved ones on Christmas Eve is something that we
look forward to all year long.
Ever since I can remember, we always go to over to my parent’s house
for the get together. Up until last year, Momma would always fix the
meal for everybody – usually it would be turkey and ham with all the
other side dishes like broccoli casserole, cornbread dressing, mashed
potatoes, gravy, fruit salad, and all kind of pies. You name it and
Momma had it. And Daddy has his special thing to do (besides eating)
and that is making those stuffed jalapeno peppers – I usually eat
way too many of these.
Last year everyone figured that Momma deserved a break and other family
members took up the slack and fixed the meal. The gathering was held
at my brother’s house, so she didn’t have to worry about cleaning
up after the mob. I don’t know why anyone would think that she needed
a break; after all she’s only been doing this about 60 years or more.
But this year she’s back at it, on a limited basis, and will fix the
ham and turkey. She said the rest of our bunch could provide the other
goodies. But I’d be willing to bet that she will still do more than
she should.
Somewhere about the time I reached middle age, it came to me that
my folks really knew the true meaning of Christmas, and I didn’t.
For example; I remember, on more than one occasion, sitting down to
eat the holiday feast with a stranger seated on each side of me. “What’s
this,” I thought, “isn’t this Christmas meal supposed to be just for
me and the rest of our family, not some people I’ve never seen!”
When I asked who these strangers were, Momma replied, “Oh they are
part of a construction crew working on the road in front of the house.
They are a married couple from another state and they didn’t have
family here to spend Christmas with, so we invited them to join us.”
My folks are like that. They’ve never really met a stranger because
it seems that after they know someone for only a short while, they
become lifelong friends.
In later years, I realized that inviting strangers for Christmas dinner
is the right thing to do and we probably should do it more often.
After all, the whole meaning of the holiday is to show love for your
fellow man – at least that’s the way I was taught.
It’s sad that this spirit of giving is only apparent at this time
of the year. I figure that if we would show compassion and love for
others all year long, it might just make this old world a better place
to live. I am proud to say that my folks have this outlook all the
time.
Over the years, Christmas has become commercialized and many of today’s
children don’t know the reason for the celebration other than it’s
a time to receive gifts. Again, it’s up to the parents to teach them
the true meaning of the holiday.
Some in the news media now tell us that Christmas isn’t really politically
correct. In other words, if we celebrate the birth of Christ we might
offend someone. I’m not a religious fanatic but the last time I looked
Christians made up 80 per cent of this country’s population. That
is certainly a majority and how we can let a handful of people decide
what we should call this special event is beyond me.
In our family, the holiday is called “Christmas” and we have “Christmas
trees.” That’s the way we were taught and that’s what we taught our
kids. I trust our children are teaching their little ones the same
values that their ancestors possessed.
Merry Christmas and God Bless. |
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