The Last of the Spirits
The Frog wraps the best of all Christmas gifts -- books by his all-time favorite Six LDS Writers!
(Don't let the fact that you can only see Rob's cover influence you. Take my word for it: they're all there! Buy a complete set for everyone you love this Christmas!)
Meanwhile, the rest of us have joined together to sing a very olde Christmas carol to you, our beloved readers:
Lo, now is come our joyful'st feast!
Let every man be jolly.
Eache roome with yvie leaves is drest,
And every post with holly.
Now all our neighbours' chimneys smoke,
And Christmas blocks are burning;
Their ovens they with bak't meats choke
And all their spits are turning.
Without the door let sorrow lye,
And if, for cold, it hap to dye,
Wee'le bury 't in a Christmas pye,
And evermore be merry!
14th Century carol as recorded by Washington Irving
With Christmas days away and all of us in about the same shape as poor Frog, we're taking a brief vacation from the Frog blog bog. (We'll be back next Friday, so don't stray too far!) In the meantime, we'll leave the Internet addicts with
The Last Frog Blog Contest of the Year!
In the comments section, share with us a recollection of your favorite Christmas ever. Winner (announced next Friday) may choose any one of the Six Writer books, creatively wrapped by The Frog himself!
"...and it was always said of him that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any (frog) alive possed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed,
God Bless Us, Every One!"
Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol in Prose
Kerry Blair — 12/21/2007 10:26:00 AM
8 comments
8 Comments:
Since I already have all six books, I'll pass on the contest, but wish all six of you the merriest of Christmases ever.
My favorite Christmas was nine years ago. I had given birth to my first son after nine months of emotional ups and downs (more downs than ups) too much water gain, anemia, and stress. The day before I had him, I sat on the couch looking at my nativity set and feeling really sorry for Mary, riding that donkey in her condition.
He came on December 9th (five days late -- that really helped the emotional problem) and as I held him, sitting by the Christmas tree, it just flooded over me how incredible it is to have a baby at Christmas. I'd never felt so close to Mary and understood her so well. I looked down at him and saw the reflection of the Christmas tree in his eyes and got chills thinking about that newborn Christ child and what it might have been like to hold him.
There's a song by Barbra Streisand that matches how I felt -- "The Best Gift." The upshot of the song is that the best gift she ever got was a newborn child. That's how I feel about that Christmas.
My favorite Christmas happened four years ago. My husband had been unemployed for over six months, and with the ongoing expenses of raising our family, plus the child support he was paying out, Christmas was looking pretty dreary. As a family we threw all our names in a hat. We each had the responsibility of making a present with things we could find in the house for that person. It would be the only gift we would give. We also decided to write a letter to each other member of the family telling them how much we love and appreciate them.
Christmas kept getting closer and my oldest daughter began to get very stressed. She was old enough to understand that the lack of employment was going to affect our Christmas. Santa wouldn't come and I wouldn't be doing my usual baking. Then things started to happen. My husband's siblings gathered together whatever funds they could spare and sent it to us with a beautiful card, including the instructions to spend it on the kids. I'd never seen my husband cry before. My aunt gave us some money, and my dad paid the kid's outstanding school fees. Then the community stepped in. Everyday and night, there were baskets and gifts left on our doorstep. One night, the bishopric showed up with seven boxes of food and gifts from the ward. You should have seen my children's jaws drop.
By the time Christmas morning arrived, we had more than enough food for a lovely meal and then some, and the gifts under the tree were numerous, including handmade porcelain dolls for my three girls.
But it wasn't the gifts that made the day special. It was the outpouring of love from the community we call home. And even more than that, it was the lesson it taught my children.
My older daughter had been to see the school councilor about her stresses and concerns before Christmas because she wasn't dealing with them very well. After Christmas, he called her in for a follow-up visit and she told him the story of our Christmas. With tears in his eyes, he relayed her words back to me. When he asked her how her Christmas was, my little girl simply said, "We had a miracle for Christmas."
Merry Christmas to all the frog bloggers!
My favorite/most memorable Christmas was two years ago. My husband and I, our two-year-old, and our new baby were living in a sorority with forty sophomore girls. We had a two room “apartment” within the sorority house and were in charge of keeping the house up, hiring the staff, and looking after the girls. It was busy. It was crazy. It was screamy. Girls are that way.
In college, the holidays also coincide with finals, which makes for a stressful time. These girls were no different than college students anywhere. There were late nights. There were tears shed. There were tentative knocks on our door asking me to proofread papers and my husband to check economics homework. There were dramatic announcements of failure and phone calls to parents.
We had girls of many religions at the sorority. We had a Christmas tree, but we decorated in what the girls called “Hanukkah colors” of blue and silver. We had wreaths and garlands and Christmas lights, and we had menorahs. At first, I muttered under my breath as I put everything up. It was just one more job to do, and I was sure the girls wouldn’t notice in the middle of everything else they had going on.
The night after I decorated the tree, I did my usual walk-through-the-house-and-make-sure-that-everything-is-okay routine. I noticed that the Christmasskuh tree lights were still on. I didn’t know anyone was in there; it was so quiet. I walked into the living room and stopped in my tracks.
Lying under the tree were several girls of different religions, looking up at the lights and talking quietly. They didn’t see me. I listened for a moment as they talked about how beautiful the lights were and how this reminded them of being kids, lying under the tree or looking at the candles. I remembered how my sister and I used to do that very same thing, and I felt a rush of happiness. And I felt gratitude to the girls, for reminding me of warmth and light and tradition.
I tiptoed out of the room. On Christmas Day, my family and I laid under the tree, looking up at the light.
Sorry, I didn't mean to not post my identity. Post #4 was written by Allyson Condie. :)
Bah, I think Rob paid the Frog to make sure only his cover was showing.
I have many precious Christmas memories (and I'm not entering the contest), but probably my favorite Christmas was last year as I lay on the bathroom floor after having puked my guts out and realizing that I was really and truly pregnant and that within the next six months I would have my baby.
My most memorable Christmas was at Clark AB in the Philippines. That year we invitied the Senior Missionary Couples from the Manila Temple to spend Christmas on the base. We had about 10 missionary couples that came to the base two days before Christmas. Each couple was assigned to a military family for three days. The first night we had a group dinner and the children put on a play. After that the couples spent the holidays with their assigned family. Everybody got to have substitute grandparents and families for the holiday very far from home.
My favorite Christmas may have to be this one, the one we just had. After some very trying months for my family we were able to still be together, along with my sister and her family who drove two whole days through horrible weather to be with us, and celebrate the birth of Christ.
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