We may have decorated for Christmas the first weekend in November this year (I just couldn’t wait!) but we really hit Christmas celebrations hard the first day of December, as many people do I’m sure. Today was very easy for me to make it fun and special for the kids, thanks to our great neighbor. We say continually God brought us to this neighborhood mainly for the neighbors and I am standing firm on those words!
Our sweet neighbor hosts a Bible club for a week in the summer for kids around here. It is a major hit! Our kids have been to many forms of Bible clubs or groups, yet I’ve never seen them so excited about one as going down the street to her house. Every Christmas she hosts a Christmas party for those kids and today was that day! Nearly three hours of games, the real story of Christmas, art, crafts, treats and goodie bags, and they came home appropriately happy and sugared up.
We continued our day by the three youngest kids and I heading to the “downtown” area of our actual city for a boat parade off the river. Whenever we go down there, I officially feel like we live in a small town (which we don’t.) Once we parked, we strolled the Christmas-y lit-up streets towards the park right off the river. Some strange looking “dogs” were being walked on leashes in front of us and it took us a moment to realize they were not dogs, but indeed were goats. (Not a small town. Not a farming town. Just full of slightly strange and awesome people!) Sitting/standing at the boat parade, I heard someone call my name. Turning, I finally recognized someone I knew from Jr High and High School. Once again, that small town feel hit me, though I neither grew up in the area, nor do I live in a small town.
I think what I’m trying to say is there have been many times in the past year where I’ve had this sweet feeling of being connected to so many, this small town feeling if you will, where I know my neighbors and they know me. We know what’s generally happening with one another or we know so in detail. We hang out at a park near the river and even if we don’t see people we know, we watch everyone interacting as though they’ve known each other for years. Our neighbor tells stories of the way the old downtown was, of the art gallery and the little soup shop. I love living this way, knowing others and being a bit more known, borrowing an actual cup of flour, checking in on a hurt kid, saying hi to an old friend at the park. “Small town” feelings, my friend. ❤️
