The Greatest Gift

                                  The Greatest Gift of All

      Christmas is almost here. The house sparkles with Pledge and Mr. Clean, the turkey is washed and defrosting in the fridge, cookies are in the freezer, the tree is decorated per Martha Stewart Living, your favorite artist is singing Silent Night,  and your shopping is completed.  It isn’t?  Your shopping isn’t completed?  You ran out of time?  Oh, my!  What will you do?  Nothing for Grandpa Jones or Uncle Bill? . What will you do?  It isn’t that you forgot them.  Of course you wouldn’t  forget them.  You just ran out of time.  What will you do?
      We have all experienced that  problem with the clock.  This year, on top of problems with a runaway clock, I  literally dropped  in to see my son and his new wife breaking my foot in the process.  And no, my shopping is not complete. And neither is anything else.  So I have engaged in some creative thinking.  Very easy.    I have a great idea most have thought about, but few ever take the time to execute  .About three years ago Mom moved in with me because of health problems.  This arrangement has worked very well for us,  and surprised quite a few of our family and friends.  Most of us think we know all about our parents.  Have I been surprised?    When I graduated from high school, my choices were get a job, get married, or live at home and go to college. True, the living at home part was due to some health problems I had.  That was it.  Three  choices.  Imagine my surprise when  forty-three years later, I learned when my mother first attended college, she shared a house with four other young ladies!  Yes, there was a married couple in the house, too.  They were the ripe old age of twenty-something.  If I had only known this when I was eighteen.  What fun I could have had?
      To add to my surprise I learned of a boyfriend she dated off and on for four years, but did not marry.  She said. “I guess I just didn’t love him.” It took her four years to decide this!  Previously,  I had known of only one other boyfriend besides my dad.  His name was Ambrose and he worked for my grandfather on the farm.  He would bring Mother candy.  Later Papa discovered he  charged the candy  to my grandfather’s account at the local grocery/hardware/feed/and gas store. To this day my aunt continues to tease my mother about this candy relationship.  Teenagers, Listen up.  There’s an idea for affordable dates.
    My education has also  been enhanced by the knowledge that my mother lived in town to complete her senior year of high school while the rest of the family stayed out at the ranch. She stayed with an older couple and helped with their children.  Wonder how old they were?  But, I suppose, it was a respectable way to complete high school.  And for those who think that parents today are aliens, Mother confessed to being very homesick and missing her mother.
    Back to my suggestion.  We all have a need to tell our story.  Some of us are more gregarious than others, but there is a story waiting to be told in each of us..  My mom is ninety-three this month and on occasion, her story is slow in coming as she thinks back to that other time.    When I think of the changes  she has seen , I am awed.  II gleefully showed her how to send an e-mail to her sister!  Here’s the idea we all think of, but rarely carry  out to completion . Why not wrap up a computer generated card offering the greatest gift of all –time to listen.  It is a perfect gift for any age, race, or belief.  This gift can be decorated with a lunch or dinner date, a picnic, or a camcorder.  The memories of our lives are priceless.  Don’t let them get away from you.  They will not always be with us.
    My fondest memories are of  nights sitting in that old farmhouse floor next to a cedar Christmas tree by the wood-burning stove.  It wasn’t  the gifts we received that made it so special.    It was  the voices of a brother and sister, aunt and uncle, beloved grandparents, cousins,  and my own mom and dad.  Now  those voices are fading  in the distance.  I encourage you to listen to the stories in your life  before they fade away.  Give  the gift of time and listening.
    Take time this year to hear the stories of your loved ones.  You already have their gifts?  No problem.  Make it a New Year’s Resolution.
    Merry Christmas as we remember He is the reason for the season.

    Kate Reno