Christmas 1992 in Richland Washington was a doozy for me. After Thanksgiving, Mike went to his new Job in Houston Texas at the University of Houston. Our second Daughter was due December 24th, the plan was for me to stay behind and sell the house, have the baby. Then Brenda, our 3 year old daughter, the baby and I would join him in Houston.
The first snow fell in November that year. Nothing really unusual for that time of year in that part of the Washington, except it stayed. And then a whole bunch more fell. The most snow they had seen in 25 years. Figures.
Brenda and I puttered around; we brought home a little Christmas tree and decorated it. I shoveled the sidewalks. My mom called and nearly fainted when I told her about the snow removal I had done. That must have bothered the neighbors to. Faye, Ken, and Bruce got together and decided to rotate shoveling my walk. It took me awhile to figure it out. The guys got out there early and had it done in the morning before I opened the blinds. I could hear them but always thought they were clearing their walks. I don’t know why I never wondered why my walk was clear if they were shoveling there walks. We had a light dusting of a snow fall one afternoon, so Faye, who was in her 80’s, thought she would give their work a touch up. When I saw my elderly neighbor lady shoveling my walk, I was out the front door like a shot. That is when I learned of their plan to keep my walk clear. I got a stern talking to about accepting people’s gifts and she was just fine and fit enough to shovel this walk thank you very much. I went back in the house.
That was a good lesson Faye taught me that day. We always hear it is better to give than receive. Part of the joy of giving a gift is the happy acceptance of that gift. To graciously accept a gift is a gift in return.
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