The Gifts of Christmas

It's the day after Christmas. The smells and looks of Christmas linger in the basement. I'll get it cleaned up today, but then we'll still have the memories to keep and gifts to use. Our children gave us a memory card for the camera which should hold all the pictures we would want to take when we go to Israel next May, and also a new fan to replace a dangerous one used in the upstairs.
The best gifts our family gave us were those of time and work. They came early to clean up the yard of the debris from the Dec. 16 ice storm. With eleven people working together, the job was done in less than two hours. Leroy was picturing himself working all winter to do it alone.

This is the brush pile.
Leroy's back started acting up on Christmas Eve and by Christmas morning he could not even put his socks on by himself. That was an added reason to be grateful the yard was cleaned up. What a relief to have the job done in one day! By the end of the day, all that remained of the brush pile was a little pile of ash. The yard was cleaned before dinner.

After we finished the meal and gifts, the men pulled out the old washline posts and made new ones. This is the gift that was promised last Christmas to happen this spring but they never got around to it until this Christmas. So we had two Christmases rolled into one. Fortunately, the weather cooperated for all these outdoor activities.

We are so blessed to have a family that can have fun working together. We had a great Christmas and hope all of you did too.