Free A Family for Christmas by Irene Brand Page A

and I didn’t have to do anything I hadn’t done in my parents’ home.”
    Wendy didn’t answer, and she applied her attention to the salad again. Hilda turned the meat in the skillet, then she put her arm round Wendy’s shoulders.
    â€œDon’t worry about it. Love finds a way around even the biggest problems. Evan loves you very much.”
    Wendy shook her head and swiped at her tears with the back of her hand. “You mustn’t have the wrong idea about us. We aren’t really engaged, you know.”
    â€œHe told me that you’d broken the engagement.”
    â€œI still feel it was the right thing for me to do. I can never be the kind of wife Evan needs.”
    â€œLet Evan be the judge of that.”
    â€œFor one thing, I don’t have the spiritual beliefs that your family has.”
    â€œWhy not?”
    â€œMy grandfather is the minister of a large church in Miami, and Mother has always resented him because he didn’t make my father stay married to her. That turned her against Christianity, and my grandparents in particular. She’s a very bitter woman, and she’s been a huge influence on me.”
    â€œWhy is she bitter? Have you ever stopped to wonder?”
    â€œMany times! But I’m not very persistent, and she won’t talk about her frustrations. It’s been easier for me to do what she wanted rather than to cross her. The only time I ever did something she didn’t want me to was coming up here for Christmas. And I feel guilty that she’ll be spending the holiday alone.”
    â€œLet’s sit and talk a bit while we wait for Evan to finish work for the night. Christmas really isn’t a holiday—it’s the commemoration of the birth of Christ. It’s been turned into a secular celebration, but not in our family. We do many of the things that others do, like giving gifts, having a big dinner and decorating, but we have some family traditions that we always observe.”
    â€œTell me what they are, so I’ll know what to expect.”
    â€œOur families were German immigrants to this country, and we still carry out some of their traditions. The Christmas tree is supposedly a German custom started by Martin Luther. Early Christians didn’t do much celebrating of Jesus’ birth, but one cold and snowy Christmas Eve Martin Luther was walking through an evergreen forest. Stars sparkled down through the snow-covered branches, as if they were a part of the tree itself. He wanted to share this sight with his children, so he cut down a tiny fir tree and carried it home.”
    â€œI did a history project on the Hessian involvementin the American Revolution, and I learned that those German soldiers may have introduced the Christmas tree to America.”
    â€œThat’s probably true. Luther and his wife decorated the tree with lighted candles to represent the Christ child as the light of the world. We always have candles on our tree, but the candles are electric ones now.”
    â€œMother and I don’t do much decorating at Christmas, but we do have a tree.”
    â€œAlso we have special German foods, especially lots of bread and cookies from recipes our ancestors brought to this country.”
    Since most of their Christmas food came from the deli, Wendy didn’t comment, but waited for Hilda to continue.
    â€œThe highlight of the season for us is the midnight Christmas Eve service, when we celebrate what God did for us by sending His Son into the world to redeem mankind from our sins. Even though I’ve been a Christian since I was a child, each year when I kneel and take communion with my family, I renew my vow to worship and adore, not only the Christ child, but the crucified Christ. It’s a tender moment, and I think after you’ve worshiped with us, you’ll have a new concept of what Christmas means.”
    â€œI hope so. After my grandparents got legal rights for me to