{"id":597,"date":"2008-12-28T04:42:55","date_gmt":"2008-12-28T08:42:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/?p=597"},"modified":"2009-01-25T11:59:25","modified_gmt":"2009-01-25T15:59:25","slug":"a-best-christmas-momentat-least-so-far","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/?p=597","title":{"rendered":"A Best Christmas Moment…at Least so Far"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s was 6:45 a.m. here when I sat down to begin writing this. Everyone was still asleep in my house but me. \u00c2\u00a0I had been on the phone early wishing my Aunt Mary in Wales a Merry Christmas.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

This year, Father Christmas brought the best gift ever to me…at least thus far. \u00c2\u00a0My brother, Jeff, was here with us for Christmas. \u00c2\u00a0It’s been 38 years since we shared a Christmas together. \u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

This year we also lost our mother, so this was a truly different Christmas as our mother often sat with us during this meal.\u00c2\u00a0 We had Christmas lunch at my house with my sister and brother in law, my son, my great Aunt Sue and her friend, Marshall,\u00c2\u00a0and, of course my brother, Jeff. \u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

We had another guest who shared Christmas with us in a different way. The rest of the family has no idea who the “special” guest was when they arrived and saw the table set with a sign on the plate \u00e2\u20ac\u0153reserved for a very special holiday guest.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0We had the extra place set at the end of the table. We told them we had another friend who would be with us, one who would not arrive until we actually sat down an hour or so later, one who would not need a chair (and that he\/she was not in a wheelchair), one that would have his\/her place set but that he\/she will not actually eat off that plate, etc. This caused a stir of anticipation and lots of guesses about who it was.\u00c2\u00a0 The ones who did venture a guess were so close, but yet so far away, from the right answer. \u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The time came to eat and my son brought out the laptop, set it up on a stand at the end of the table and turned the screen on. \u00c2\u00a0 There was our young friend, Ren, who calls me “Mama Cook”. \u00c2\u00a0His flight was cancelled due to all the bad weather across the US and he was not able to get home to Greenville until the 26th. \u00c2\u00a0We invited him to join us at lunch by computer. \u00c2\u00a0He ate at his home while we eat at ours and was at the end of the table on the computer for us to talk and laugh with for over two hours. It was great fun as he lives in Hollywood, California and teaches famous actor\/actresses children drama classes in a private school there.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

As I look back on that day, I can say it was one of the most unique meals for our family.\u00c2\u00a0 Having my brother with us was awesome and sharing it with Ren made it special for him since he was stuck across the country.\u00c2\u00a0 I see him on Friday before he goes back to California.\u00c2\u00a0 I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure we will laugh about this experience as we catch up over dinner.\u00c2\u00a0 We saved some of our Christmas dessert just to share with him face to face over coffee and conversation.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

My wish for you today <\/em><\/strong>is that you make your family and friends gatherings special and do them as often as possible.\u00c2\u00a0 Then, when things change (and they will), your memories will give you joy and comfort.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

~ Joellen<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s was 6:45 a.m. here when I sat down to begin writing this. Everyone was still asleep in my house but me. \u00c2\u00a0I had been on the phone early wishing my Aunt Mary in Wales a Merry Christmas. \u00c2\u00a0 This year, Father Christmas brought the best gift ever to me…at least thus far. \u00c2\u00a0My brother, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,22,32,16,27,45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-familyfriends-gatherings","category-friendship","category-holidays","category-life-events","category-living-life-to-the-fullest","category-love"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}