An Xmas memory that I wanted to share.....

Alhamdulillah, I've been muslim more than 1/2 my life now. But of course come Xmas days, I think about warm memories and family love. I remember a particularly memory today, and wanted to share it......just for the love....

When I was about 8 years old, I got this great idea of how to make money during christmas, I called my best friend who lived across the street, Patti....and we got right to it. She came running over to my house and we got out a pad of JUMBO construction paper and some lined paper. We made a little folder out of the construction paper in Xmas colors, all decorated with snowmen and snowflakes. Then on the lined paper we wrote all the xmas songs we had memorized, Silent night, Jingle Bells, etc etc. Those little folders took us 2 days to finish.......and as I remember them today, they were beautiful.

I lived in a bldg with 114 apts, so the day after we finished, we proceeded to go around the building, banging on doors and if some unfortunate soul opened their door.....we sang! We sang with our hearts full of Xmas spirit, but more with the thoughts of the jingling noise our pockets were going to make when we finished the whole bldg. Ohhhhh, the dreams of an 8 yr old! We saw ourselves finishing our bldg, then moving on to hers, and then on to the sister bldg of mine, then the townhouses across the street, the neighbourhood......and we had plenty of time.....at least a WHOLE WEEK before Xmas to go!

Well we sang, we caroled, we joked.....but mostly we just had this great time being together, me and Patti. The funniest moment we had was when we knocked at these peoples door and they paid us $ 2.00 to go away. Offended? NO WAY! More encouraged if anything.

Well, when we had just about finished my building...from the 8th floor all the way to the ground floor....we thought about the occupant of apt 110, who we skipped because she was an older lady. I only knew that her name was Ella and that she always gave us Xmas cookies every year. We were 8 and she must have been about 80. She rarely had visitors at her home and we really had only seen her very few times. So we both agreed that we might as well knock on her door and sing for her too.

When she opened her door, she had such a look of surprise and expectancy on her face, that I realized she thought we would be someone else. No matter though, she invited us in, (the only person to do that out of 113 apts!) and asked us to sit down and excuse her for a moment. Well, she came back with big mugs of hot cocoa and a plate full of her Xmas cookies. (even the ones shaped like little xmas trees with decorations, which were my favourite)

She told us about her grand daughters who were older than us, and about her great grand daughters who were our age....talked about her life....her memories of xmas. We were so thoroughly were enjoying ourselves, that we forgot our purpose in being there. She beat us to it....and supposed that we had those folders for a reason and asked if she could make a request...she wanted us to sing Silent Night.

Well, we SANG that song that day....there was magic in the air.....we sang it like we really meant it......and she had tears in her eyes when we finished....we sang it for her....a lonely old woman who we never realized was very special. When we left at the door, she gave us both a dime each, definately not the most generous donation. But we didn't care. Me and Patti went back to my place to count the money and that night we promised that we'd always go back and visit Ella. And of course, like young well meaning kids do, we forgot.

Well, we made our money that christmas and I remember I spent all mine on my moms present. It was a red rose encased in glass with water. She still has it today. Sadly, Ella is long gone, she died a couple of years later. I'll always remember the warmth of that visit, of the friendship that she offered, of the friendship that WE offered. It was a special moment in time.

I miss your cookies, Ella.....I miss you.