I was inspired to write this due to the event that happened to me in 2004. Like most people, on the day before Christmas Eve we were prepared for the big day. All our gifts were wrapped; most of them under the tree and our decorations were hung. We even had "a wonderful life" in the VCR waiting to view. We had one last day of work and then we were off for the long weekend that we were so looking forward to. Our families, for the first time in twenty-five years, were all going to come over and spend the holiday with us. My wife's brother had made the cross- country trip from California, and our son was bringing his new girlfriend, who came from a fairly well off family, so we were a little apprehensive because we lived in a small modest house that needed a lot of work. We wished it could have been bigger and nicer for everyone. That morning my wife told me of a dream she had had, that her mother who had passed on years ago told her we would no longer be living in that house and showed her a new house we would soon be living in. My wife commented to her mother that she was okay with the old house and didn't mean to talk it down. Her mother just smiled and floated away. I thought it quite odd since we were just talking about "some day". Also, that morning, when it was still dark out, for some reason there was a bird frantically building a nest outside our house and making quite a racket. I went off to work feeling a bit of the Christmas blues, worrying if we had gotten enough for everyone and whether our house was good enough, knowing that it was so small someone would have to sleep on the couch. My work Christmas party was going to be that day, and I wondered if we were going to get a bonus this year. Then I thought, "Was that all that Christmas was really about?" Around one o'clock that afternoon, just as I was getting ready for our company party, my Dad called me at work and said there was an emergency and I had to come home now. As I pulled into our driveway, I could see that the very large tree that was in our yard had fallen on our house. The postal lady had witnessed it as she was delivering a package to our door. She thought the winds were high, so she had better tuck the package under a small table we had by the door. As she did she heard the crash of the tree coming down, not only crushing the house, but also her car that was in the driveway. If she hadn't stopped to tuck the package in, she to would have been crushed. Luckily she was unharmed. After learning that, I went inside the house to find that the trunk of the tree had smashed through our living room, cutting our Christmas tree in half, but stopping just short of crushing our pet rabbit and all of our presents. If the tree had come down any earlier or later, it would have killed us or it may have killed our visiting family, especially anyone sleeping on the couch. We were very blessed that no one was hurt and feel that my wife's mother was watching over us. But the house was now condemned, and as I surveyed the damage, people started coming out of the woodwork. My family, good friends, people from work, even someone who was just driving by, people I didn't even know, all came to help us cut the tree off and cover the hole. We actually used some wood that had been used to build a manger for a church play just days before, which a friend from work brought. Other friends and family helped us sift through the debris to find presents and broken ornaments, along with our broken lives. The grocery store, were my wife works, and her coworkers donated food for us and the clean up crew. By that night we had it all cleaned and buttoned up, and although the house was no longer livable, we had several offers to come and stay with people. We ended up at my brother-in-laws for what turned out to be close to a year, until we were able to rebuild an even nicer house than we had, thanks to our insurance company. The outpouring of peoples' hearts to come and help us in our time of need, and for months afterward demolishing that old house- this love made me realize what the Christmas spirit is truly all about. It's not the presents or how nice your home is, not the party that I missed out on or the bonus. I don't cry much, being a strong-willed man, but the unselfishness of people and the outpouring of support and love brought me to tears more than the loss of our home. I truly feel blessed and want to thank everyone from the bottom of my heart for every thing they have done, and especially for showing me what Christmas is all about. When people ask if there is anything they can do now, I say, "Keep the spirit in your heart all year long, and have a happy holiday!" story word count 893