Martha and I wish you and your family a Merry Christmas and a happy and safe new year. As for what have we been doing in the year 2020, we have been doing very little. COVID has us sheltering in place and wearing masks when we do venture out. That is usually to the grocery store, or to doctors. So far, the closest we have come to COVID is that we know people who know people who have had it. Hopefully, we will stay COVID free until we become eligible for the vaccine. We hope the same for you. I suspect all of us will be happy to see this year end and start the return to a non-COVID lifestyle! I for one can’t wait to get rid of the face mask. COVID has affected us all—especially grandchildren whose college and schools have been totally disrupted.
Despite the obstacles, we have worked on the house and have purchased a new water heater, new HVAC and landscape lighting. With Martha’s help I did manage to publish a new book during the year, Beyond Visual Range, and I am writing a series of ultra-short stories to be used in launching Applewood Manor’s website next year—called, of course, Stories from Applewood. Here is a Christmas related sample:
ABOUT Christmas Spiders
It was snowing and we already had a good six inches on the ground. I was standing on the Rocking Chair porch at Applewood Manor watching some of the younger guest building a snowman. I say younger, but you must understand that for someone in their seventies pushing eighty people in their thirties, or heck, even forties, qualify as young. Dr. Cornelius Burgos, a retired Church of Christ minister, was also on the porch. He and his wife moved to Florida when Dr. Burgos retired, and this year, missing the seasonal changes, they decided to spend some wintertime in the mountains.
It was that time of the year when people are starting to decorate their homes for Christmas. There were Christmas trees for sale on just about every vacant lot in the city. Holiday shopping was getting in high gear. You could feel the excitement as people counted down the days to Christmas. So, it was only natural that the minister and I started talking about Christmas. I asked Dr. Burgos if the commercialism bothered him. “Sometimes,” I said, “The real reason for Christmas seems to get lost in the excitement of tree decorating and all the gift giving and getting.”
Dr. Cornelius Burgos’s face seem to light up at the question and he said, “Not at all my friend. I consider it wonderful. Trees and particularly evergreens have been a symbol of growth, death, and rebirth throughout the ages. They represent the joy of life God has endowed us with. And Christmas is a celebration of gift giving. After all, Christ was a gift—the greatest gift of all. I’m sure you remember the words--For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son “
Dr. Burgos continued. “Throughout the ages Christmas has been about giving. To help our Church children understand that we give Christmas gifts and decorate our Christmas trees to celebrate the birth of Christ, I tell them the Ukraine story of the Christmas Spiders. Would you like to hear it?”
“Sure” I said, “
Well, there are variations, but the one I was taught in my village as a child goes like this:”
“Once upon a time, a poor mother lived with her children in a small home. Outside their house was a tall pine tree, from which a pinecone dropped and started to grow from the soil. The children had heard stories of people decorating trees to honor Christ on his birthday. So, they tended to it, ensuring that it would continue to grow and be strong until it became tall enough to be a Christmas tree to take inside their home.
On Christmas eve, the tree was up, and the mother got busy cleaning the house for the most wonderful day of the year—the day of the year on which the Christ child was born. Not a speck of dust was left. Even the spiders had been banished to a corner in the ceiling to avoid the housewife’s cleaning. Unfortunately, the family was poor and even though they had their Christmas tree, they had no gifts to go under it. Nor could they afford ornaments to decorate it in celebration of Christ birthday. The spiders, another of God’s beloved creatures, heard the sobs of the children as they went to bed and decided they would not leave the tree bare. So, the spiders created beautiful webs on the Christmas tree as their gift, decorating it with elegant and beautiful silky patterns.
When the children woke up early on Christmas morning and saw their beautiful tree. They were jumping with excitement. God was pleased, and as the rays of the sun shone on the tree, his blessing, for what the children and spiders had done in his son’s name, turned the webs into glittering silver and gold making the Christmas tree dazzle and sparkle with a magical twinkle. Thus blessed, the family never suffered from want again. And, to this day, gold and silver colored tinsel decorates Christmas trees all over the world, and we exchange gifts to celebrate the birthday of Christ.”
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For signed copies of books by Tom Collins, go to TomCollinsAuthor.com. Unsigned print and eBook editions are available on Amazon, Google Play, Apple iBooks, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, and other online bookstores. Audio editions are available on Amazon, iTunes and directly from Audible.com. Be sure to check out the latest Tom Collins Novel, Beyond Visual Range on Amazon.
Published by I-65 North, Inc.