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Thank you for your wonderfull stories!

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drumroll...........


Pennies In My Pocket

With her Story:

I'll classify this story under the "different Christmas" category you listed ...When I was a kid my dad lost his job because the company he worked for went bankrupt. He transferred to another state where it hadn't shut down. The economy was horrible where we lived and my parent couldn't sell our house for years. So, we lived in different states, couldn't afford to fly him to us or us to him. Things were tight, needless to say. I remember the stress and I became a worryful child....and Christmas still comes even when times are rough. It was tough enough being away from my dad, but to know things were so extremely hard made Christmas less 'joyful.' I was never ever a greedy kid or head strong on having the 'latest' toy trend, but I still wanted Santa to come. I still wanted to experience the bliss on the day we celebrated Jesus' birth...I was a kid, what can I say?Christmas creeped up on us and I was lonely...missing my dad. Then I found out my aunt had invited my Mom, brother and myself over to sleep over on Christmas Eve night. Would Santa know where I was though? hehehe That Christmas was amazing....we received SO many gifts! I had never received that many before and actually felt guilty for having so much because I knew I didn't 'need' all of it...but it was nice. The surprise of receiving so much didn't really take the sadness of my dad not being there, but it was somewhat of a distraction at least and it created a memory that would last a lifetime. This is where all of this starts to matter the most ... years and years later my Mom told me about that Christmas from her point of view. She was basically like a single Mom because my dad was gone for so long. She worked 3 jobs (as a teacher and she taught Piano and sold Amway) to support us and help pay my dad's expenses where he was living. I had no clue that throughout the year she was gathering gifts from sales she would find. She wanted to make sure that my brother and I still had a great Christmas.She would hide all the goodies in the garage. To make sure that we wouldn't stumble upon them, she kept them in a garbage bag. After months of gathering goodies, so she crept into the garage to find her treasure she buried, but there was nothing to be found. Gasp...the bag must have been thrown out on a trash day. All her efforts of saving, spending wisely, planning, anticipating seeing her kids surprised and happy were washed away. She was hoping to take our minds off the reality of the situation and instead was hit hard with a brick, no boulder, of new reality. This story still makes me want to cry when I think of it, but even more so now that I'm a Mom who would do anything to see my daughter experience a blessed Christmas. It hurts my heart to know that she worked so hard for us and that she kept her hurt feelings to herself for years in order to not make us feel down. That's what moms do though.All those 'surprise' gifts at my aunt's were from my aunt and uncle. They knew what happened and wanted to make sure we did have a Christmas. Although this was absolutely caring of them, I can't help but think of how humbling it was for my Mom. What makes that Christmas so special is that because of this story every Christmas is 'different' in my eyes now. First and foremost, Christmas, to me, is about the birth of our Lord and Savior. I have already received the best gift through salvation, but Christmas is also about giving 150% from you heart just like Christ did. I try to give until it hurts. My husband and I have always tried to make Christmas 'happen' for families in need every year and without them knowing. In fact, there is a part of me that doesn't even want to admit that out loud because I don't want praise or attention for it. My point is, receiving something so special and surprising will last with someone the rest of their lives. Its contagious, thankfully. I just hope that the people we try to help, in return, choose to pass on the blessings to others ... and without credit. "Different" is good. May you have a blessed and "different" Christmas and may the lives you touch be forever changed because of it!~melody~

Thank you everyone for stopping by!

Melody please email me with your Email address @ nicholejordanblog @ yahoo . com

Thanks!!!

Have A Merry Christmas!!!

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