Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Catholic
The Gifts I Got This Christmas

The Gifts I Got This Christmas

Last updated on: January 7, 2020 at 7:11 pm by Mary Pezzulo

The Gifts I Got This Christmas 2020-01-07T19:11:12-04:00 Mary Pezzulo

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Want to know what I got for Christmas?

Oh, I got a lot of good things for Christmas– four huge gifts I didn’t expect. It started when the secular world’s idea of a Christmas began, with my friend I’d never met in person showing up and taking the family to Pittsburgh on Black Friday for a trip to the zoo, and then to Trader Joe’s and out to dinner. I felt like Christmas had already happened for me, as far as I was concerned.

That was the first gift. Thank you to my friend.

Then we had an Advent of miracles, which I’ve already told you about.

Advent and Christmas have always been a bit of a sad time for me, at least in all my adult life. When I first separated myself from my immediate family, it was a time that was exceptionally lonely. Everyone had families to pray and celebrate with and I was alone. After I met Michael, I found that his lovely family doesn’t bother very much with Christmas except for the liturgical aspects; they never had the money for many presents and didn’t even decorate– and besides, they live far away in Missouri. Then we had Rosie, and we had the general nervousness of making Christmas happy for a child when there was very little money and no family nearby. Sometimes we didn’t even have a ride to Christmas Mass and ended up walking. Sometimes we had a tiny stick Christmas tree in our terrible apartment on the worst street in LaBelle. A few times, The Friendship Room had to bring Rose her Christmas presents because we didn’t have the money.

I always felt depressed after Christmas, as if Christmas hadn’t happened yet and all that excitement was for nothing. Oh, Jesus was born and I went to Mass and that was most important, but there was no fun and no feeling of having honored Him by making the world brighter. I love tacky decorations and I love getting presents, but one of my major sources of sadness was not being able to do nice things for people. I always wanted to live out that iconic but apocryphal scene from films of A Christmas Carol that doesn’t actually happen in the books: the scene where Scrooge shows up at the Cratchits’ house and showers them with toys and treats. I wanted to be a Reformed Scrooge for somebody. I wanted to shower somebody with surprise treats, and I didn’t have the money to do it myself.

This year was different. All through Advent, I kept on noticing people who really needed help and then working with my readers to help them– a little of my own money and me doing the leg work but you guys providing the majority of the financial help, and I am more grateful than I can ever say. Guests at the Friendship Room and at the indigents’ nursing home and my friend the escaped battered wife had great Christmases because God inspired you and me to work together.

That was the second gift, and it was the best. Thank you for that.

The third gift was from Michael, who came upstairs one night after a late trip to Wal Mart and asked, “Do you want one small present for Christmas? Or do you want one small present PLUS a present with minor cosmetic damage?” and I said I’d like two presents.

“Good,” he said. “Then I won’t put this right in the kitchen things. I’ll wrap it. It was on clearance because it has a dent.”

On Christmas morning, Rosie opened a pile of presents most of which we paid for ourselves; some that friends sent, but we didn’t have to rely on the charity of the Friendship Room this year. And I opened two presents: an ornament shaped like a glass elephant, and a broiler pan with a dent. We needed a new broiler pan. When you’re a grown-up, a broiler pan is exciting. When you’ve been very poor for a long time and are now only moderately poor, a new broiler pan is great fun.

That was the third gift, and I thank Michael.

And then the fourth gift. This was a gift I’d secretly prayed to Saint Nicholas for on his feast day, because he always takes care of me, but it felt like a pipe dream. You see, years ago when I wrote that blog post, we got a used dryer– it had been sitting in someone’s barn for a long time, in fact. We were grateful for it. It served us for about a year before it broke and we couldn’t fix it. And then the belt of the washing machine broke so it would fill but not agitate, and we had to go back to washing clothes in the sink or in the washing machine itself but wringing and agitating them by hand because the machinery wouldn’t. The trick of being much less poor than you were and almost not poor at all anymore, is that expenses you’ve put off build up. We’re thrilled to not be food insecure at the end of the month and to be able to put Rosie in lessons she loves after school. But big expenses are still out of reach. Our fridge needs replacing soon and the range keeps breaking, and we certainly couldn’t afford a new washer and dryer either. We made do for a year; we stretched things out on drying racks and turned the fan and space heater on them to dry faster. A few times this year we splurged and carried the laundry to the laundromat, but that’s expensive and it’s hard to walk there when it’s cold out. I prayed to Saint Nicholas to somehow replace our appliances.

A few days after Christmas, I got a message from one of my friends. She said that she’d started a gofundme behind my back and passed it around among my blog readers. And you all raised enough that two workmen from Lowe’s just showed up at my house and installed a brand new washing machine and dryer– with professional installation this time, so the hose isn’t leaking all over my laundry room like the old one did.
That was the third gift, and I thank you.
I have named the new washer and dryer Crockett and Tubbs, the same name I gave the old washer and dryer.
I keep peeking at them because I can’t believe they’re real. I’m afraid to turn them on for fear they’ll melt into mist. But the wonderful thing about things that are real, is that you don’t have to believe. They go on existing anyway, whether you do or not. Every time I look in the laundry room, there they are. I even snapped a photo. I walked into the laundry room with my laptop because it was the only camera I had, and I still can’t believe it.

I guess this is as apt a metaphor for Christmas as any I’ve ever lived. You don’t have to have a merry Christmas feeling for it to be Christmas. Christmas can be disappointing and it still exists– Christ is still born and dwells among us. His grace still permeates all of our experience, no matter how banal or how sad. He still redeems everything whether we feel like we’re cooperating with His work or not. When we do notice His prompting– when we see an opportunity to do good, and actually forget our helplessness and do our Father’s will– we see miracles manifest all around and it feels like a holiday. But whether or not we can see miracles, they’re here.

They are as real and far more real than a washing machine and a dryer that are sitting in my laundry room, professionally installed and ready to go.

I’m going to go do a load of towels now, but I wanted to show Crockett and Tubbs off first. I wanted to show off my whole Christmas now that the twelve days and Epiphany are accomplished. For once I’ve got no regrets about taking the tree down and going on with the rest of the year. I’m not depressed at all.

And I thank you all from the bottom of my heart for that.
Merry Christmas and a happy new year, from our family to yours. God bless us, every one.

(first image via Pixabay, image of Crockett and Tubbs taken by the author)

Steel Magnificat operates almost entirely on tips. To tip the author, visit our donate page.

Previous Post

January 7, 2020

Blackbird, Regnum Christi, and the Legacy of Spiritual Abuse

Next Post

January 8, 2020 Catholic Social Teaching Is Not Pizza

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category abortion Abuse Advent America American Christianity angel angels Annunciation Appalachia apparition apparition chaser apparition chasers apparition culture art art review babies baby baby Jesus Bad Lip Reading bad statue contest bath beauty Bible story blog blogkeeping blood book review Brandon Sanderson breastfeeding bus Catholic catholic conspiracy alarmism Catholic Oppositional Disorder Charismatic Renewal Charlie the Cat chastity Christ Christian idenitity Christianity and Judaism Chronic Illness clean clothing COD piece comedy compassion conscience conspiracy theory conversion cop-on-black violence Crucifixion cry of the poor culture Daesh Daily Saints death death penalty devotional diaconate diaper diapers dirty disability Donald Trump Dorothy Day dream drugs Eastern Catholicism Eastern Christianity education election election update Elsewhere on Patheos empathy environment Fear feminism film review fish flashback fluffy buns food Franciscan University of Steubenville Friendship Room fun Gabriel gardening gospel hair-splitting Heaven hell heresy Hillary Clinton history Holly the Witch Holy Spirit holy war Homeschooling homosexuality horror human dignity humor Icon idol immigrants infection inter-religious dialogue Interpretation of Scripture Islam Jesus Jihad Joseph joy laity and lay vocations lamb dinner laundry lent lgbtq literature love manners Mary Medicine and Science Meditation mercy mess milk misogyny Missouri monasticism monster motherhood mourn with those mourn movies movis music mystery nature neurodiversity New Pro-Life Movement news nonsense nostalgia O antiphons obituary objectification Ohio Valley Ordinary Time ordination Ordo Amoris parable paradox Passover peanut butter personal beliefs pets philosophy Planet Charismatic poetry politics polls poop Pope Francis Pope Leo power in the Church prayer prayer request prayers preferential option for non-violence president presidential election priest primary private revelation pro-life prophecy Public face of Catholicism Pure Flix Q and A race racism random rape rape. sexuality reader's request Reckoners refugee religious trauma ressurrection Right to life Saints saints and celebrations same-sex same-sex marriage satire scandal secular feasts seder Seven Joys Seven Last Words sex sexual ethics sexuality silencing six months skid row slavery social justice Speculative fiction spiritual abuse spoon stain story suffering suffrage suffragette Sunday Gospel temple Tenebrae Responsories Terror the exorcist The Friendship Room The New Pro-Life Movement Things I Learned on the Internet tin cup traffic true story tv review Uncategorized USCCB vice and temptation violence Virtue virtue and vice war Way of the Cross whimsy whole life women's ordination work of mercy Year A

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who was told to prophesy to the mountains and valleys of Israel?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Hosea Daniel Ezekiel Micah