December 24 – “A most unusual gift”

Happy Christmas Eve, everyone.  I know I said I would post the story I was writing, and I still intend to.  I still need to do some general editing, spell checking, and proof reading (not that I will catch all the mistakes or anything).  But it’ll be out on FaceBook before you know it.  I do have a working title, though.  “Something’s Not Right With Blitzen.”  Be thinking about that one.

I think we finally finished our Christmas shopping yesterday.  Last night to be exact.  We stopped in at Target on our way to Micah’s indoor soccer game and picked up the last two things.  Hey, we (read here, “Chris”) have even wrapped most of the gifts, and some of them are even under the tree.  Now I still have to do some wrapping of my special “DadGifts.”  Those are the ones that Chris refuses to have any connection with at all.  Can’t understand why though.  They are always selected after much agony of thought and came with a carefully worded explanation.  Oh, and that reminds me.  I have discovered a person of like mind.  But that requires a bit of background.

Our neighbors across the street, the ones who are renting the house I grew up in from whoever it was that bought it, are Mario and Carolyn.  Very sweet people even if they are Yankees through and through from New York.  Actually, I think he is more Italian than Yankee, if that makes any difference.  They have worked really hard since they have been there to get rid of stickerburs in the grass, which automatically makes them A-OK in my book.  They also have the house decorated for Christmas, which hasn’t really happened since Hurricane Ike. 

Now Mario is an incredible storyteller.  I have heard tales of his old-school Italian family that still make me chuckle just to think about.  This Fall he and I have had a continuing good-natured ribbing going on about the leaves from our sycamore tree blowing into his yard.  He keeps telling me he doesn’t want them, and I assure him that it is perfectly fine with me for him to keep them – as a special gift from me.  Well Mario presented me with a gift the other day.  We were investigating an unusual fungus growth in his flower bed.  A pink, spongey-looking thing with what looked like four legs and a mass of brown, slimy-looking stuff hanging down from each leg.  It stunk really bad, and as a result was attracting flies in droves. 

While we were discussing its possible origins (I accused him of tossing chicken livers into the mulch since that what the brown things reminded me of.  Carolyn thought maybe they were alien seed pods that were planning to take over our bodies and turn us into zombies.  I told you they were great neighbors), Carolyn disappeared into the house and returned with two gifts.  One was obviously a tin with edible goodies.  She gladly handed that one to me and said, “This one is from us to you and Chris.”  The other one, however, came with a disclaimer.  “This one I had nothing to do with.”  It was a pretty good sized box – one of those that mail-order items are shipped in.  Sure enough, the tag read, “To Kelley From The Grinch.”  This had to be good.  I couldn’t wait until Christmas for this one, so I opened it right then.  And inside was … drumroll here … stuffed completely full to the brim … sycamore tree leaves.  Now that’s a funny gift.  Carolyn was afraid that I would be offended.  I assured her that I was far from offended.  Instead I was inspired.  I said I couldn’t wait to give Mario his gift now.  Actually, we already had them some of Chris’s famous friendship bread, but I had something else entirely in mind. 

Which brings me back to our final day of shopping yesterday.  I had to get the last piece of my puzzle for Mario’s gift so I could present it to him today.  Here’s my plan.  I should be safe because I’m pretty sure he is not among the teeming hordes of fifteen or twenty who regularly read my blog.  I am going to use the same box.  I’ll fill it with some mulch we have in the garage, and nestled safely in the middle of the mulch?  A carton of chicken livers I finally found at Randall’s yesterday.  Just to give him a fresh start on his creative gardening.  Maybe we can have the whole neighborhood infested with pod-growing, people possessing alien life forms.  Sounds intriguing.

Luke 2:17-20 says, “When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

Father, thank you that your gifts are good and perfect.  Especially your Christmas gift, the most perfect of all.  Amen.