“A merry Christmas to everybody! A happy New Year to all the world!”
- Ebenezer Scrooge from Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol."
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AUBURN, Maine — Like the Cratchit family, we were making rather merry as we opened our Christmas gifts Tuesday morning.
We are both employed, consider ourselves lucky to have presents under the tree and a sturdy roof over our heads in an area of the world where there is no fighting in the streets.
I think we all cleaned up on Christmas.
Anthony startled his parents with his good taste. We discovered he is a prudent shopper and purchased all his gifts at bargain-basement prices at church fair.
My son gave me a copy of the movie, "PT-109," the first two seasons of "Combat," "13 Rue Madelaine," "MASH," and "Shane." Terri received episodes of "Murder She Wrote," "Agatha Christie," and the anniversary edition of "Gone with the Wind."
Anthony was on the receiving end of many gifts. He is a voracious reader of history so we surprised the lad with a copy of James MacPherson's "War on the Waters." MacPherson is an authority on the Civil War, and he has written another great book about the war's naval battles.
I enjoyed my coffee and added a little special something to it as we crowded around the tree to open gifts on Christmas morning.
I tried to keep memories of past Christmases from reappearing, but I couldn't stop thinking about all that has went before in my life.
That's what happens when you go on living. Those bittersweet memories will always get in the way as long as we remain above ground.
My two sisters called from Massachusetts, and I was grateful to hear their voices. I called my dad who is struggling to speak in complete sentences. Alzheimer's is winning and we are all slowly losing a father to this excruciating disease.
There are moments when I think I have forgotten to call my mother, but reality brutally backhands me when I remember she is no longer in her kitchen drinking coffee and listening to the news.
The exchange of gifts continued and I focused on the present. I watched the smiles on the faces of my son and wife when they ripped off the rapping of each gift.
We did something nice for someone else this Christmas. We invited an elderly neighbor, who has been knocked around in life like the rest of us, to spend the yuletide with us.
Who wants to spend a holiday alone? So we reached out to another human being because that is what this holiday is really all about.
We had just finished exchanging gifts when it began to snow hard.
I just added another spectacular memory of a wonderful Christmas.
That's what happens when you go on living.
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