The Christmas Jacket:

Saturdays are definitely for appointment radio switching between KPLU and KUOW . It’s a lovely way to spend a day doing chores or relaxing with some knitting.
Wonderfully funniest things I heard from said engagements recently…
"Wait a minute….Washington has just legalized marijuana and TWINKIES is going out of business ??!!! Couldn’t they have waited a month? Business would have been great!"
Let me get this straight…the head of the CIA couldn’t cover up his affair?!! He was right to resign!"
There’s something about December that causes my focus to look for two things: humour and miracles.
It’s been a while and someone requested I repeat the story of the Christmas Jacket, our family’s favourite story with both humour and a miracle.
\Here goes…there’s a cottage on the west side in Beulah Park where Caity and I spent a memorable winter. I was working the drive thru window at Dairy Queen. She was being a 4th grader. Isaac was in Europe. Chris was floating in and out and actually came for Christmas Day that year. Joe had gone to live with his birthmother for a while.
Caity and I were both secretly very sad and terrified most of the time but we are two ‘silk purses out of sow’s ear’s’ kinda people and so we kept having ‘adventures’. Like plugging the Audi in every night through the bathroom window to keep the block warm =or some such= and the kitten we were given that promptly began bleeding internally and then ran off presumably to die.
This particular Christmas did not bode well for traditional expressions of gift giving. I had literally nothing. There would be no Christmas gifts for Caity and I this year. I thought of an article I read in Guidepost one time where a family went through the Sears catalog and cut out and wrapped up presents they would give if they had money. That was kinda sorta my plan.
In life’s irony, I have, until just weeks ago when I changed my values a bit, always volunteered for things using my professional skills even when I wasn’t making enough to live on. So at the time I was volunteering for PTSA and as such would regularly and faithfully attend every school board meeting.
Caity wanted a very specific set of gifts that year. At the top of the list was a winter jacket in teal and purple. I had not yet presented an alternative experience to her. I was waiting until the last possible moment hoping there would be a Christmas bonus from my employer at the eleventh hour. This was the year Caity was deciding about Santa Claus. Poverty was going to prove the issue to the negative.
The school board meeting was over and a woman approached me and said, "I have some things out in my car. I was headed to donate them to the toy drive and during the meeting was thinking maybe you could use them."
For those of you who are very independent and have had to accept or worst yet, ask for help in financial lack, you know what mixed feelings I had at that moment. Because of Caity I said yes. Any parent can go without forever but if your kids are involved, one moves heaven and earth and swallows any kind of pride for them to know the best you can provide them. That means saying yes to donations.
She opened the trunk and started pulling through the bags. A little spinner of a Christmas tree that when you pushed the little latchy thingy revealed a little something on the inside. Some art supplies, some other trinkets and do dads. Perfume I think. And then she pulled it out…..a winter jacket in teal and purple with the exact design and company logo she wanted.
Yea.. I’m crying right now. I cried then. I cry every time I see that jacket hanging in the closet. The last move Caity asked me if I was ever going to get rid of it. No , I won’t. It is the reminder that no matter what my circumstances look like God loves me and is working behind the scenes to make things the best they can be for me and my children.
Christmas morning she kept saying to me , ‘You’re Santa Clause aren’t you Mommy?" And I could say with all authority in heaven and on earth."Caity I tell you the absolute truth. I had nothing to do with you receiving that jacket." Well… I did hope for a miracle. Sometimes that is enough and all you can do.
Buy what you want this season, but can I make a suggestion? Get things that will remind the receiver they are loved by God. Be a miracle maker this season. Listen to the still small voice within and gift accordingly.
Happy Holidays,
Love, Deborah
 
STUART LITTLE 
Free Family Film Series Sunday 9th December 1:30 PM @ the Vashon Theatre. All Seats FREE!! The Little movie with big heart. Come have a holiday break together. Limited number, first come, first served free treat meal boxes for those on free and reduced lunch program donated by PTSA. Please contact your school counselor. Movie sponsored by LGC Educational Services