Christmas morning began with a frosty glaze decorating the rooftops and lightly dusting the evergreens and as the bells rang out to celebrate the birth of the Lord the joyous faithful arrived under a clear blue sky.
It was a most glorious
Christmas morning and spirits were high.
At St Joan of Arc’s, Reverend
Cheryl Mackender was in great form conducting her first Christmas Morning
service in front of Reverend Matthew Lines smiling in the front row.
Arielle was not in attendance
at St Clara’s in Spaniards Creek as Midnight Mass had taken too much out of her
so Reverend Henry Noble presided over the service.
Afterwards it took some while
for the Church to empty as everyone wanted to give their best wishes to
Arielle.
In the days preceding
Christmas Molly and Danny had been inundated with invitations to share
Christmas dinner and were quite overwhelmed by people’s kindness, but in the
end, they decided to decline all the invitation’s so they could enjoy a
wonderful Christmas lunch, just the two of them, where they ate too much, drank
too much and then had the present opening after lunch as per Molly’s tradition.
Back in June on one of their
walks when they were crossing a stream, Stuart Cameron caught sight of
something glistening in the water, so he knelt on the bank and reached down and
picked it up, it was an irregular shaped piece of aviation Perspex about the
size of a cigarette packet.
He assumed it originated from
a German World War Two aircraft, a Messerschmitt probably, and likely fell to
earth as a result of cannon fire or flak.
Following the find Stuart
began fashioning it into two items,
He had done everything he
could do himself, but he needed help from one of his patients, Daniel White, at
Longlake Farm, who made jewellery as a hobby so one Sunday he drove out to the
Farm so that he could finish off the pieces with gold mountings so they could
be worn on a chain.
One of the items he had given
her was a perfectly crafted Dolphin for 39th Birthday and the other one he had
kept for Christmas.
“It’s beautiful” she
exclaimed as she took the Celtic Cross from the box.
Deborah Woodward had a faith,
but she was not a churchgoer, it was hatches, matches and dispatches only for
her.
“You are amazing” she said
and kissed him “I really love you”
In
mid-December Dale Power offered to take Eden Hills Christmas shopping on the
mainland one afternoon and they had a great shopping expedition which
culminated in a tender kiss.
There
were many more dates and many more kisses between then and Christmas Day.
They
had to spend Christmas Morning and have Christmas lunch with their families, so
they didn’t get together until 4 o’clock at her parents’ house which was when
they opened their presents, Eden had never done Christmas presents with a
boyfriend before and she was very excited indeed, almost as excited as she was
with the shopping trip when he kissed her in the Shopping Centre.
Her
parent were in the lounge watching TV, so Eden took Dale into the dining room.
There
was a small Christmas Tree on the table, and she had placed his present under
the little tree as Dale looked on.
“Happy
Christmas” she said excitedly and handed a little gift bag to him.
“Ok”
he said laughing and he took the package and inside the gift bag was a little
bundle wrapped in tissue paper, and inside that was a little square gold
embossed jewellers’ box, and when he opened the hinged box, he found a pair of
platinum cufflinks bearing his initials.
“They’re
lovely” he said and then he joined Eden and kissed her.
“Your
turn” he said and placed her gift under the tree and brought out a small
parcel.
“I’ve
never had a Christmas present from a boyfriend before” she said
“Well
you have one now, open it” he urged “Open it”
“I
want to enjoy every second of it” Eden said
When
she had carefully removed the paper, she put it on the table and opened the
gift box and inside she found a gold charm bracelet, bearing five charms, an
anvil and a horseshoe, (symbolizing how they met while he was blacksmithing), a
heart inscribed with her name (for love), a Christmas tree (to mark the
season), and a crucifix (as a mark of faith).
“Wow”
she exclaimed “it’s beautiful”
“You
can add to it as a record of our life together” Stephen added
“What
forever?” she asked
“For
ever” he confirmed before adding “I love you”
“And
I love you too” she responded, and they embraced, and the nature of that
embrace led to them having to adjourn to her bedroom.
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