Christmas in Hickory, North Carolina

I guess going home for Christmas, for Karen and for me, was just about the best Christmas ever. I have to preface this post with something sad the reader may not know. Karen lost her 33 year old son back in June of this year. This is the first Christmas without him and a tough one for both of us.

I was fortunate to have known Jason for 15 of his 33 years and he had grown to love his stepdad. He and I had become kindred spirits of sorts, as I was someone he could talk to about problems without some of the emotional luggage he had with his 'real' dad. He soon was calling me 'dad' as our love for each other grew over the years. That said, you see how this Christmas was important for Karen and for me to be around her parents, sister, and brother and their family at this time.

We got to Hickory Thursday night and moved into the downstairs guest bedroom. We had dinner together and talked and had a nice night cap of a single malt I bought for the Clarks. Isle of Jura, by name, one dad Clark likes a lot.

Karen's sister Kathi and hubby Steve came Friday about noon and we had lunch and dinner together before going to Christmas Eve services at Northminster Presbyterian Church. Their service involves what it called a 'love feast'. The early Moravian Christians who settled in the Carolinas and Georgia have a practice of passing a basket with a sweet bun and a hot cup of coffee or tea during the service that is their way of 'service' to other Christians during this special time of year.

It was a nice touch with a time to visit and meet new friends during a short break in the middle of the service. You then pass the cups back down to the aisle and they are collected by the members that service you.

The church was decorated for Christmas and they light the 5th candle of Advent that signifies Christ's birth. Toward the end of the service, they pass bee's wax candles to all present and the minister lights the first candle from the Advent candle. Just as Christ teaching spead in the world, the light from that first candle soon lite up the entire church as all the candles were lite. The last verse fot the last hymn, the candles are held aloft and the lights in the church are lowered and the effect is awsome. I have been to Candlelight service many times but this one, for us, was special. Karen cried a little as did I, but that was OK.

Christmas morning we opened gifts after our tradional Christmas breakfast of a variety of cheeses, crackers, toast, and jelly and jam. That with Jamican (sp.) Blue coffee was perfect. Gifts were exchanged and each waited for that gift to be opened and all the Ohhhs and Aughs, then another was passed out. It takes a while to open Christmas for our extended Clark family.

Karen's brother Paul, girlfried Corine, and daughter Katie came for lunch and dinner on Christmas day. We had 11 for lunch and dinner a house full.

It was a nice extended weekend for all, and we went to church together Sunday. It was hard saying goodbye Monday morning but time to go home to Birmingham. The Clarks are a wonderful and close knit family and makes this guy, this tall country boy from Birmingham feel right at home. And I was!