Christmas Fruits

Our neighborhood looks like the perfect Christmas post card in December. We have snow piled on houses and icicles hanging from tree branches and lots of Christmas lights. Once the Christmas holidays begin, the place is full of kids running around with their sleighs and having snowball fights.

I don’t get to enjoy much of the scenery as I’m locked up in my room wrapping, labeling and coding Christmas gifts. My husband thinks it’s very unhealthy for me. Two years ago he made an incredible effort and helped me out with a lot of my work. We had the wrapping, labeling, coding done two days in advance. We had scotch tape stuck to our holiday sweaters and ribbon tangled in our hair. But as we sat on the sofa together and watched the snow fall, I felt absolutely tranquil. To add to this perfect picture, a group of kids showed up to sing Christmas carols. They were kids from around the block and my son ran to join them. We stood in the door way and listened. The kids were cute but rather off tune. My son hadn’t helped much since he didn’t know all the words. It was cold and most of them were shaking as they sang.

Although I was tired from all the work I had put into wrapping the Christmas holiday gifts, I felt the urge to make something for them, as a nice encouragement. Like hot cocoa or something. I went into the kitchen and whipped some up. I hadn’t got around to baking any Christmas cookies yet so instead I brought out the beautiful fruit bouquet I had received from my sister. She had sent it in place of the usual Christmas gift baskets that she sends. It was a really unique Christmas gift and I thought to share it with the kids. We all stood out in the cold, with the snow falling lightly and enjoyed the Christmas fruit and hot chocolate. I owe that wonderful experience to my husband.