Go With the Spirit by Caroline Clemmons

I’m Caroline Clemmons and I’m so pleased to be here today. This is my favorite time of year! Everything seems to remind me of happy past holidays. However, like Joan Reeves, I prefer my snow in Hallmark movies rather than in my yard. Snow is lovely to see from your living room window, but most Texans don’t know how to drive on it.

To celebrate the season, we drive around to look at Christmas lights on homes, go to Interlochen—a housing area with astonishing light displays on the homes, send cards, and chuckle over how surprised family members will be with our gifts. Anticipation fills the air. How many days until Christmas?

One of the pleasant memories is of the first Christmas Eve that my sister in-law’s in-laws (Mr. and Mrs. joined our family celebration. My sister-in-law’s husband had never been allowed to celebrate Santa or receive gifts. His mother—Mrs. Scoffer—believed that exchanging gifts, having Santa, destroyed the real reason for the holiday, which was the birth of Christ.

My in-laws and my mom and Mr. and Mrs. Scoffer were in the same Sunday School class, so this belief wasn’t something Mr. and Mrs. Scoffer had heard in church. Not at all. My mother-in-law had promised to show the doubting couple that exchanging gifts could be a part of respectful worship. My husband and I didn’t know about the Scoffers before we arrived on Christmas Eve. It was our turn to stay with my parents, and we’d brought them from their home a couple of miles away to join the festivities. (I admit I preferred staying at my parents’ place.)

I remember that the doubting and defensive Scoffers sat together at the end of the couch nearest the door. The woman had her arms crossed over her chest, a clenched jaw, and an Oh, yeah? expression on her face. Slightly more reasonable, Mr. Scoffer leaned forward, as if not wanting to miss a detail. We had snacks about 6:30. At 7:00, my father-in-law read the Christmas story from the Gospel of Luke. A prayer followed for those present, our friends and families, and all those who needed help, and for peace on Earth.

At “Amen,” the children cheered and my husband (his parents’ eldest child) passed out the gifts from under the tree. There were a lot!—even something for the two Scoffers. When the frenzy concluded, Mrs. Scoffer said, “I didn’t know it would be like that. You didn’t ignore the reason for Christmas at all. We could do this next year.”

Think of my poor brother-in-law and his sister all those years they didn’t receive gifts at Christmas. Boggles the mind. I do not intend to launch a debate about how we should celebrate Christmas. Lighten up, folks, and go with the spirit.

We give gifts with love to those we love. We receive pleasure by giving pleasure. We rejoice in the ability to share our love in a tangible way at Christmas. I wish you a very Merry Christmas and a New Year filled with the spirit of peace on Earth in your heart.

                                   

Through a crazy twist of fate, Caroline Clemmons was not born on a Texas ranch. To compensate for this illogical error, she writes about handsome heroes, feisty women, and scheming villains in a tiny office surrounded by research books and mementos. She and her Hero live in North Central Texas cowboy country where they ride herd indoors on their two cats and two dogs as well as providing nourishment outdoors for squirrels, birds, and other critters.

The over sixty books she has created have made her a Top 100 Amazon historical author, a bestselling author, and won awards. She writes sweet to sensual romances, both historical and contemporary as well as time travel and mystery. In addition to her series she has written single titles and contributed to multi-author series and box sets. When she’s not writing, she loves spending time with her family, reading her friends’ books, dining in restaurants, browsing antique malls, delving into genealogy, checking Facebook, and taking the occasional nap.

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Caroline Clemons