February 28, 2023

Sometimes the Simplest Are the Best

Read: Luke 2:1-20

Our family has had some pretty amazing Christmases: great food, too many gifts and parties, domestic and foreign travel. This last Christmas we walked the Freedom Walk in Boston and visited the Mt Washington Hotel, New Hampshire’s version of our Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island.

One Christmas we went to the Aspen United Methodist Church for Christmas Eve.

Last year we had to cancel all our reservations for Christmas week in Vermont when my son-in-law got COVID on Christmas Eve while we were watching the Pope say mass from Rome. There was no church that evening since the religious leaders in Cleveland said Christmas Eve services were unsafe.

That said, probably one of my most memorable Christmas Eves was December 24, 2020. Fifteen of us, bundled in our warmest, stood in the Memorial Garden while Charlie van Becelaere read the Christmas story from Luke.

Fifteen minutes and a little frostbite later, we were on our way home. I had made brisket and had my Jewish friend and her husband came for dinner. Even without the brisket, it was a Christmas to remember.

Sometimes the simplest events are the best. ‘Tis a gift to be simple.

Vivian Anderson