WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CHRISTMAS & BEST GIFT EVER ?

11/7/2009

Hi Everyone...

What is your favorite Christmas memory and best
gift ever ? I'll go first..

In 1967 a month before Christmas I received the
best Christmas memory and gift, it was a chocolate
Poodle and I named her Gi Gi . She was the love of
my life....She lived to be 10 years old, she passed
away of heart failure in 1976 , I have never forgot her
and I never got another dog.....

Cheers.Joe....

My best Christmas memories are from Germany. There, the winters were magical and so were the holidays. The best Christmas gift was the gift of friendship and sharing the joy of friends who reunited in my little town when all the stars alligned on Christmas Eve during the Viet Nam era:

The Christmas Eve service was almost over, and everyone would pass through the gate. Jeremy waited. In a short time, bells rang out; it was midnight. People poured from the church, walking four and five abreast.

The full moon clouded over as huge white snowflakes began drifting down, sparkling like new diamonds. Then Jeremy spotted Shirley! She was a slim figure in her blue wool coat and tan beret. The ancient church gate, decorated by the drifting snow, framed Jeremy in his dress blues. He let out a yell and grabbed Shirley around the waist, lifted her off the ground and smothered her with kisses. The crazy sailor and dark-haired American girl were a strange sight to the German parishioners passing by, but Jeremy and Shirley did not care. Christmas had begun!

Shirley had been in Germany for three days already. She had heard nothing from Jeremy and anxiously waited for his arrival. In church that night, she enjoyed the music but could understand nothing of the rest of the service. So, she prayed. As she prayed, she found peace within herself. She came to understand that if Jeremy could not make it to Germany from his ship in Cannes, France, everything would still turn out as God intended. That was her mood as she left the church.

When Christmas Eve arrived and still no word from Jeremy, who, unknown to us, was traveling from his ship to Butzbach, we went to midnight service at the German Lutheran Church, a 16th century building with exquisite high spires and stained glass windows, entered through stone and wrought iron gates. It was a cold and crisp winter evening with a full moon peeking in and out of clouds threatening snow.

The church was crowded; but Derek, Shirley, and I sat together, all hoping for Jeremy’s arrival. Derek was on leave for our trip to take Jeremy back to his ship after he arrived. Church ended with a choir singing like angels on high. Near the back, we were pretty much the first to leave the church. We started toward the gate. Big, white snowflakes covered the wall and the ground; yet, even with the snow falling, the moon still peeked out enough to turn the snow into a sparkling white wonderland.

The best white of all, however, was the sailor’s hat perched on top of Jeremy’s head, framed in the gate, from which he was running to swoop Shirley into his arms. Shirley and Jeremy disappeared toward the station for his bags. In true German tradition, we stopped for our already purchased Christmas tree and hauled it home to our modest apartment above the Piccolo Bar for a Christmas celebration with our friends..

11/7/2009


DK...


That was a beautiful story...


Cheers.Joe..

Joe ,

The one coming up--I love anticipation.
I like your threads too.

11/9/2009


Alice....

" Thank You"


Cheers...........Joe.......

Christmas tree, because the best gift for it's Chistmas atmosphere