Christmas Jars had sat in my library for at least several years when I picked it up in November of this year. I was searching for an easy to read book for my Christmas book club party, and I had found it. It was a novella, so it was short and it's simplistic nature was perfect for our down-to-earth Christmas book club. Party members met with wrapped books in hand, snacks to share and their very own Christmas Jars filled with coins saved since our last book club party. We had a great time unwrapping, exchanging (and stealing) books. We ate each others goodies and we even went Christmas Caroling. We only had the door slammed in our faces once! Bah-humbug to those neighbors! Hmph! But then we were back home for the real fun of combining all our change into one jar. We filled a LARGE pickle jar and a smaller jar. We counted and came only coins short of $147! Wow! What a gift we were going to make to a very special lady.
The fun happened the next day. It was rainy and cold when Kaye Roberts (my trusty partner in crime), Shelley, Darbey, Clowee and I went in search of the sweet little lady (let's call her Mrs. S) who lost her husband earlier this year. We took a long drive into the country and finally found (with the help of a gps) the home we thought was hers. I backed my car into the neighbors driveway. Kaye ventured to the door to ask if the house next door belonged to Mrs. S. It did! We were in business on a very wet and dreary day. Kaye and I leaned our chairs back so our heads would safely be behind the tinted glass of the back seats. Darbey put her hood up and took the biggest jar. Shelley was right behind her with the other jar. Clowee was safe and sound in the get-away car keeping their seats warn. Shelly and Darbey trudged through the slippery grass to the front porch as we nervously watched, but upon their arrival they found no stairs. Shelley puts her jar on the concrete porch and slid it ever so noisily toward the front door. Darbey reprimanded her in whispered irritation as only a 15 year old can do, before catapulting herself up onto the porch. She moved the jars closer to the door and then turned to the car and did her best sign language to illustrate, "no door bell." I took my fisted right hand and mimed knocking in the air and lipped the word "KNOCK" and quick as Santa Claus himself, that's exactly what Darbey did. She knocked three sharp knocks. Shelley turned before the last knock was knocked, Darbey jumped like a track star off that porch and the two of them rain through the grass like a couple of Christmas bandits. Kaye, Clowee and I laughed as we told the girls to hurry and get in the car. I tried not to think of the muddy mess that was now on my floor board carpets. The three girls in the back seat ducked down in their seats breathless, Kaye and I made sure we were down and back peeking only through the back windows, then......... we waited. It seemed for a moment Miss S. wasn't coming to the door. I was thinking about what we'd do next to make sure she received her gifts, but just as I was about to give up hope, Miss S opened her front door. Miss S. peered through the glass storm door FINALLY seeing the jars. She timidly walked out onto her porch bent down to the see words CHRISTMAS JAR... SOMONE LOVES YOU written with red marker on the biggest jar. Miss S. stood straight up, put a hand over her eye to shield the sun that wasn't out and surveyed the surrounding landscape right and then left and then right and then left again. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, Miss S opened the storm door holding it that way with her behind, she then stooped down again lifting a jar in each hand... how she did this, I will never know because those jars were heavy. She disappeared into the house and within a moment came back to the front door, peeked out one last time hoping for a glimpse of anyone who might have left her with such a gift. With a small shrug and a simple smile she closed the door, and that was that. With tears in our eyes and goosebumps on our skin Kaye, Shelly, Darbey, Clowee and I had had the experience of a lifetime and rediscovered in a small way the true meaning of Christmas...giving.
Thanks to each and every person in our book club who helped by putting even one penny into our Christmas Jar. It wasn't about the amount, of course, it was all about the giving of your time, your energy, your spare change and your love, into a simple gift to a simple lady who has had a difficult year. You guys are AWESOME!
