The Big Surprise

First Christmas

The Big Surprise

First Christmas

A 1967 International pickup was our first married Christmas chariot.  It carried us on our trip to Blackburn, OK to celebrate Christmas with my Granny.  We had a fuel tank in the bed of the pickup and could just pull over and pump in more gas when we needed it.  I had to sit in the middle close to the Farmer as we traveled as there was a big Christmas wrapped box against the passenger side door.  The Farmer was going to surprise his bride on Christmas Eve with a beautiful sewing machine. 

It was sweet for this bride to bring her new husband to share Christmas with her precious extended family and with her dear Granny.  Christmas Eve on Granny and Pap-Paw’s ranch was a very treasured tradition.  Pap-Paw passed before the Farmer had a chance to get to love him.  He passed when I was twelve years old.  He made a big difference in my life by leading me to the Lord.  Granny was a wonderful hostess and she treated her family like royalty.  Her cold stairway in her two story house was filled with sweet treats on each of the steps.  They were chilling there after being made by Granny’s own hands. 

The family gathered in her kitchen to play hours and hours of pitch with cigarette smoke filling up the room with a cloud.  It was a rowdy time of love, competition and cooking all gathered in the same room.  That old kitchen was rocking. 

The Christmas tree was cut down from many on their ranch and decorated with all the old ornaments made by children and cherished through the years. 

On this first married Christmas Eve both the Farmer and his bride were to be surprised.  He was surprising her with that sewing machine and she was surprising him because she had found the receipt for a sewing machine in his documents and she knew what was in that box that he had so carefully hauled from Kansas to Granny’s.  It was a double surprise!

Fifty-two years later we won’t be traveling to Granny’s except in our memories.  Our own children and grandchildren will be traveling home to the farm to celebrate the birth of our King the weekend after Christmas.  This old farm will be bursting at the seams!  This bride and her Farmer hope to be half of the gracious hostess that Granny was. 

We’ve had a full year this 2024.  We traveled much to participate in our grandchildren’s lives.  We have visited college campuses, new apartments, watched cross country, football, wrestling, basketball, tumbling, vocal concerts and more.  Our grandchildren are not children anymore.  Only two are in elementary school.  All of the rest are in high school, college, and one has a graduated college and has a great job as an engineer.

In April we worked with our SOWER group at Alert Academy in Big Sandy, TX.  It was so wonderful to spend time with some of our friends and clean out an old green house and help refurbish some fencing and remodel.  June found us at a great nephew’s wedding in Wisconsin.  We took a boat ride on Lake Superior around the Apostle Islands and managed to find some quilt shops along the way.  Grandparents’ lunch day with our two in elementary school was another highlight of our year and a trip to the Louisburg Cider Mill with the Myers was a hit. 

Our Generations Church has moved into our new church building, debt free.  The Lord has been kind and so gracious to us and every day we feel blessed and filled with gratitude for His many blessings. 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! 

Luke 2:15 TPT “Let’s go! Let’s hurry and find this Word who is born in Bethlehem and see for ourselves what the Lord has revealed to us.”

John 1:14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.  We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.