No submission from Chris

Chris said he was just not ready yet! As for that tree, Becca did that in MS Paint. I love that my kids are able so well educated on how to use the computer. I am one monitor and a desk short of a PC for Chris. He wants a gaming rig. Don’t we all?

It’s that Christmas time of year! The temperatures are in the 70’s, and they drop to the upper 50’s at night, the water is too cold to swim, and the birds are arriving from up north. All of this makes for a winter wonderland here in Florida.

I remember two Decembers long ago (1991 and 1977) where it snowed. In 1977, the snow actually stuck to the ground for a few hours. I was four years old back then, but I remeber the car covered in snow and how I didn’t much care for how cold that snow was. I was bundled up in Florida winter gear, which included two windbreakers, long sleeve shirt, pants, and a pair of socks on my hands.

In 1991 it was nineteen degrees on the ninteenth of December. I was on the phone with a good friend of mine, and I looked out the window and saw snow. I told John, and he thought I was kidding. John looked out, and there it was — snow. I am not sure he had ever seen snow before. I remembered that our terazzo floor was incredibly cold. I had shoes and socks on, yet my feet would not warm up. I stepped into a warm bathtub…and it hurt like hell! My feet seemed to be chilled for atleast the next few days. I suppose it was practice for living in the NW Chicago burbs some ten years later.

Of all the places I have lived, I never experienced Christmas in New Orleans. Katrina wiped us out months before our first New Orleans Christmas would have occurred. It’s just as well; I never liked New Orleans much. That particular Christmas, it seemed, was one of our best Christmases of all time. The kids got numerous gifts from friends and family; even my former card playing group kicked in some goodies for the kids. That year, we lost alot; money given to us by friends at our old church which we used up quickly; feeble FEMA money was used up pretty easily; we had to take out a loan which we are still paying on to this day; money that we owed family members for the sale of our house in Chicago evaporated and I am not even sure when that can be repayed. But Christmas — Christmas was special that year. There were no worries that Christmas. Everything was well taken care of. God seemed to provide something special that Christmas.

This Christmas is a little tighter than Christmasses past but it will still be special. Somehow, we have managed to cut some corners and come up with decent gifts for the kids. Family will be in town, so that makes Christmas that much more special. There is an extra face in the Stackhouse family. Her first Christmas will be special to us. Rachel will never remember the day, but we will always treasure it. Who needs money and gifts when we have been given the gift of life. Perhapes our babe will remind us this year of the original Christmas babe born two thousand years ago in a stable. When you think about the Christ child born in a manger, surrounded by animals, hay, bugs, and animal dung–money just doesn’t seem to matter anymore.