{"id":2138,"date":"2010-12-27T03:17:00","date_gmt":"2010-12-27T09:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/papa-in-box-good-news-of-great-joy\/"},"modified":"2019-02-18T09:59:08","modified_gmt":"2019-02-18T15:59:08","slug":"papa-in-box-good-news-of-great-joy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/?p=2138","title":{"rendered":"Papa in the Box \u2013 Good News of Great Joy!"},"content":{"rendered":"

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But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.\u201d <\/em>Luke 2:10,11<\/p>\n

Christmas \u2013 so anticipated by all of us! So many family traditions that started 43 years ago when we celebrated our baby boy\u2019s first Christmas, but how would it look this year without Papa \u2013 our Patriarch \u2013 that started our family\u2019s traditions? <\/p>\n

All twelve of us (that includes Ron\u2019s Mom) met for our annual Christmas celebration. After our traditional Waikiki Meatballs and Rice, Chicken and all the trimmings, we went to the Game Room where the grandchildren delighted us with their talents in their traditional Kids\u2019 Christmas Program. Oh, there was a change this year \u2013 the oldest grandson, Braden, now 18, was exempt from performing\u2026.after all, now he\u2019s a man, and he was ready to put away those childish things, but the others gave us piano solos, songs, stories and dances that gave us all such joy. <\/p>\n

Then it was time for our traditional Christmas Story that had been read by Papa, from the same book since Braden was a baby. All the kids would sit on Papa\u2019s lap, or by him, and he would mimic the voices of Mary, Joseph, the Innkeeper, the Shepherds and the animals. It was always a delightful time with lots of photo opportunities. Braden, our 18-year old (the man, now), broke into tears a few days ago when he remarked, \u201cThis will be the first time in my life when Papa won\u2019t be reading the Christmas Story!\u201d Yes, it\u2019s a new day, and we\u2019re creating new family traditions as we go. We\u2019re all realizing we have to step up to pick up the slack that was left by Papa\u2019s departure. So the family\u2019s consensus was, \u201cIt\u2019s Uncle Ryan (our son) that should step up to be the official Christmas Story reader from now on!\u201d Oh, yes, he was under pressure. He had big shoes to fill \u2013 after all, Papa was the master voice mimic! Though we missed Papa\u2019s presence and his own \u201cPapa\u201d style, Uncle Ryan, under great scrutiny by the little eyes and ears of the young ones, did a splendid job \u2013 he made the kids \u2013 in fact, all of us, smile and laugh, and we were inspired by the awe and wonder of our Lord\u2019s birth once again. <\/p>\n

Of course, the highlight for the kids is always getting to open their gifts \u2013 finding out what their hidden treasures would contain! Shouts and squeals of joy always puts smiles on all our faces. <\/p>\n

Then it was Nana\u2019s turn to be sentimental. I had spent days rummaging through my Honey\u2019s treasures and items that represented who he was. I gathered the items together and strategically placed them in six very fine treasure boxes for the grandchildren. In the oldest grandson\u2019s box, was Papa\u2019s wallet that held his pilot\u2019s license (Braden just completed his first \u201csolo\u201d flight. He\u2019s in training for his pilot\u2019s license \u2013 following in Papa\u2019s footsteps); in the second oldest grandson\u2019s box, was Papa\u2019s sports pins from the 2000 Super Bowl that he attended, as well as his OU Sooner lighter (Bear is the sports fan \u2013 and has lots of sports memorabilia); in Payton\u2019s box (our 10-year old grandson), was Papa\u2019s fishing knot tying book (Payton is the fisherman \u2013 following in Papa\u2019s footsteps); in Alexia\u2019s box was a little stuffed animal that I gave Papa many years ago and she always loved it. And in all of their boxes were other symbolic little items that spoke of the Papa they knew and loved: 1) his favorite gum \u2013 Trident Citrus Flavored; 2) Smarties candies \u2013 Papa would always have some hidden in his office for them; 3) Breath Freshener Strips \u2013 Papa always made sure his breath smelled good; 4) a Measuring Tape \u2013 represented Papa\u2019s ability to build, restore, and remodel; 5) one of Papa\u2019s hankies; 6) one of Papa\u2019s pocket knives; 7) some of Papa\u2019s pins from the many organizations he belonged to; 8) one of Papa\u2019s crosses and religious coins; 9) a pair of Papa\u2019s glasses and 10) one of Papa\u2019s watches. No, nothing in those boxes represented a lot monetarily \u2013 but each item symbolized the Papa they knew and loved. They\u2019ll take those boxes home; perhaps, put them under their beds, and from time to time, will open them again and recall the joyful times they had with Papa.<\/p>\n

Then, I gave an envelope to each one of the children, grandchildren and Ron\u2019s Mom. Those envelopes contained about five photos of Papa with that person. Each of us told about those photos — what we were doing with him and what we felt during that time. A range of emotions would follow. Yes, it was a celebratory time \u2013 time filled with tears and laughter \u2013 but special in that each of us, individually, and collectively, were able to release our emotions and tell about the love we have for Papa, recall the special man of God he was, the special Papa he was, and the Dad and Husband that laid a sure foundation of faith, hope and love in our lives. We shared those precious memories together and all agreed that we will get busy with doing what he taught us with actions and words to do \u2013 to be a family that bases our lives on trusting in God, sharing the GOOD NEWS of GREAT JOY everywhere we go.<\/p>\n

The evening finale was singing \u201cHappy Birthday, Jesus\u201d before we dived into Granny\u2019s amazing chocolate cake. Yes, we will continue to celebrate and praise God and say with the angels, \u201cFear not, for behold we bring you GOOD NEWS of GREAT JOY! Jesus Christ is born. He\u2019s the reason for the season. He\u2019s the reason for our joy!”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.\u201d Luke 2:10,11 Christmas \u2013 so anticipated by all…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2138"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2138\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2228,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2138\/revisions\/2228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}