My, we are a hopeful species! Somehow though, it all gets done... or sometimes it doesn't.
This year's holidays was an especially bumpy one for our little family. Between small stresses, tube surgery for the little guy and rushing around, we found ourselves with an electrical problem in my little guy's bedroom on the day preceding Christmas eve.
Unfortunately, all this had a bit of a woe is me effect on my moral. I was quickly falling into the , "Oh my goodness what the heck else going to go wrong!" attitude. It is amazing how fast this can happen, you are riding along happy as can be and suddenly you are smacked by parenting or house ownership issues that just deflate you completely. Sometimes, the house, as much as I love it, can feel as much of a child as our child is.
That night, the eve of Christmas eve, I ran over to the neighbors to borrow a bit of foil I had run out of for our baking. While chatting with them I mentioned ( lamented and whined and moaned!) about our issues with the electricity of our little guy's bedroom. If you can imagine my surprise when the Dad mentioned that his brother (who also lives across the street) was a registered electrician. To quote Dr. Seuss, my heart grew two sizes that day.
The next day The Brother came over and helped my husband fix our problem. This sweet, kind truck driving man came to my house, got on all fours and rewired three plugs before finding the scorched one in our guest bedroom. He also installed new boxes, new plugs and got shocked all in a matter of two hours. He taught my husband what to do to fix the problem and saved us a bundle that we honestly did not have.
It is moments like this that I realize the joy of Christmas, and especially the joy of being loved. We are loved by so many more than we realize, those we see every day and those we don't, those we cherish and those we sometimes take for granted. It is in these times that it comes to my attention how much people mean to us, how much we really are not an island, how much our family is not just our immediate siblings, children and spouses, but really includes our friends, relations, relatives and neighbors, the people we recognize every day as we go about our business, shopping and lives. Sometimes the people we take for granted are the ones who you will remember and love the most.
