Love Is The Greatest Gift At Christmas

If I speak in the tongues of Christmas materialism and greed but have not love, I am only a tiny Christmas song or an out of tune choir

If I have the gift of knowing what Aunt Agatha will give me this year and can even understand last year's present, and if I have the faith that I won't get yet more socks and ties this year but have not love, I am nothing.

If I clear out the house and give everything to charity and my credit cards are snapped in half but have not love, what can I possibly gain?

Love is patient when the fourth store you've tried doesn't have a bottle garden.
Love is kind and lets the couple with only a few items go in front of you and your bulging shopping cart.

Love does not envy your friend who gets mega-presents from everybody.

Love does not boast about the $400 bike, the Xbox 360, the TV, VCR, and computer your dad gave you.

Love does not attempt to out buy, out wrap, and out give the rest of the family just to impress.

Love doesn't cut Aunt Flo off your Christmas card list because she forgot you last year.

Love is not self-seeking and leaves a copy of your Christmas list in every room of the house.

Love is not easily angered when the young girl at the checkout takes forever because she is just temporary staff.

Love doesn't keep remembering how many times your mum forgets you don't like Brussels sprouts.

Love does not delight in the commercial bandwagon but rejoices with the truth of a baby born in the stable.

Love always protects the family from Christmas hype.

Love always trusts that the hiding places for presents will remain secret for another year.

Love always hopes that this year more neighbours will drop in to your open house coffee morning.

Love always perseveres until the cards are written, the presents all bought, the shopping done, and the Christmas cake iced.

Toys may break, socks wear thin but love never fails.

Where there is the feeling of the presents to guess their contents, and mum going on about being good so Father Christmas will come, and searching through the cupboards to find your hidden presents, they will all stop.

For we think we know what we are getting, and we hope we know what we are getting but when Christmas Day arrives all will be revealed.

When I was a child I talked with big wide-open eyes about Christmas, thought that Christmas was all about me, I reasoned that Jesus should have been born more often. When I became an adult, I forgot the joy, wonder, and excitement of this special time.

Now we just hear about the angels, shepherds, and wise men, then we shall see them all the time. Now I know as much as the Bible says about the first Christmas, then I shall know just how many wise men there were and where they came from.

Now three things remain to be done:
To have faith that the baby born in a stable is the Son of God.
To hope that the true message of Christmas will not get discarded with the wrapping paper and unwanted gifts.

And the most important gift of all is to give your love and friendship freely to others this Christmas. This gift costs you nothing, yet is the most precious and most valued above all material gifts.

Love, Peace and Goodwill to all from TC4Women

John Elliott aka Oaky Wood & Luella May

Hello dear ones, As always, your topic hits on the exact thoughts that have been rumaging around in my head and here you come with an outlet to express them! As you know I'm on the marathon cleaning project with holidays popping up in the midst needing to be attended to. This year in New Orleans, at least for me, is the first year for creating new traditions gleaned from the debris left of last years storms. So many people here no longer have the trinkets and baubles and even the people that made up thier holidays in decades past. It is a new day. My husband is the only family member left here in the city so I have reached out to my neighbors and people I have met in the past few months to come to dinner. Hoping to start new traditions with new faces at the holiday table. The missing element in all of the preparations, the seal of love-was the preparations themselves. I remember the cleaning and the laughing and the shopping and the laughing the wrapping and the laughing the opening and the laughing-all tied together by stories of the past and how family members interacted with one another. At the end of the holiday the gifts were such a tiny part of the entire celebration that there was never any disappointment when I unwrapped my scarf and gloves from my favorite aunt! (Always-scarf and gloves!) But even though she has been gone for well over a decade (most of them are gone or scattered)-every time I see a scarf and glove set-I smile and think lovingly of my aunt and the feelings of being loved and cared for warm me.

Hello Dear Joyce!

Do you remember when you sent me the email telling me that you posted three times and to please delete two of them?  Well, when I did, I also deleted John's reply to you.  Oops! 

Your post contains such a lovely sentiment.  Yes, this is a Holiday Season with new beginnings, new traditions.  A time to be with friends and make new friends.  Christmas begins with the heart and so anything accomplished is a success.  No matter what the gift, the message received is "I love you!"

I wish you, your family, and neighbors a most blessed Christmas.  May this be the beginning of a brand new era, an era of building a new city, a caring city,  bringing everyone closer together.

Love to you,

Luella May and John Elliott, aka Oaky Wood