A Family Christmas

Picture a family Christmas in a one family home which included nine adults and 14 children.

Picture the opening of presents for all of those, and feeding all of those, and only one child getting hurt when his finger got pinched in a door (no broken bone.)

The scene is a happy one, cousins playing with cousins, remote-controlled cars, adult conversations and joking, bows and arrows in the snowy backyard, snowball contests and teasings, computer games, movies, and all the food and treats.

What you visualize is a quite prosperous and joyous Christmas, a little cramped at times, a little noisy much of the time, but a memorable Christmas.

One of the children did a tongue twister on the theme of "butter" and his dad offered to go outside in the fresh snow and do a snow angel in his T-shirt and slacks, if anyone could do the same tongue twister capably. The tongue twister was done impressively and rapidly to much applause, The dad's twin brother, however, immediately took the challenge and did the same tongue twister almost equally well, forcing his surprised brother to "pay the bet" by taking off his shoes and socks and doing a snow angel to the equal delight of all present.

For all of that, and more, what surprised and impressed everyone was this: the children were 15 years old down to not quite two, and composed of eight boys and six girls, and while the youngest could dance, and clap wildly, the rest proved to be musically inclined!

We had three violin solos, two vocal solos, a vocal duet, a flute and piano duet, two piano solos, a guitar solo, and a flute solo. All were capably done and with admiring (even surprised) applause, suggesting that future Christmas gatherings in the years to come may see the real "gifts" better displayed in musical talents than in things wrapped in paper or delivered to stockings!

That is as it should be. Music has always been associated with the celebration of Christmas from heavenly choirs to wonderful church music and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Children, too, have always been at the heart of Christmas, from the holy babe wrapped in swaddling and lying in a manger, to the wonder in the eyes of children worldwide over the centuries since that birth we celebrate at Christmas.

Parents, teachers, and family play their own key roles in nurturing what is best in the rising generation.

On this one special Christmas, in this one house, on an average suburban street in America, it all came together, and it showed.

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Copyright 2012 Demas W. Jasper All rights reserved.