At Christmas time for 53 years, we two St. Paul’s families (the Muckles and Ferrees and now their vastly extended families: Batches, Nunnerys, Smalls, Barnes and a Berge) have celebrated Christmas Eve together. Mary and John Ferree started hosting dinner for the eight of us two young families when we were all brand new to Boulder and new neighbors. I still have the original menu that Mary printed out; that menu has remained essentially unchanged. The next generation conservatively insists on keeping it just as it always was! We gathered, we ate, and all went to the Christmas Eve church service together.
Time passed. The original youngsters grew, married, created their own families. Some of them had THEIR families. So we number about 25 these days and many no longer live locally. Even so, our Christmas Eve dinner and church service remains a treasured gathering and tradition—with some slight alterations. It is now the “Christmas Eve EVE” dinner, the change allowing us to eat, visit, and still get to St. Paul’s for the service. And the dinner location moves to different host houses. John is gone; my brother Mark is added; Martha and Steve became godparents to Bob and Melanie’s daughter Alex; the AnthemAires have come into being; life has had problems; but we do retain “unfailing love for one another.” And what a joy!
Certainly one of the Lord’s greatest gifts that WE celebrate at Christmastime is that of love, friendship and hospitality. Even if the pandemic prevents our physical gathering this year, the gift of inseparable friendships goes forward.
—Pat Muckle
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