On the Sixth Day of Christmas: She Cooked A Christmas Meal That Made Me Feel Like Family & 5 Other Stories

My Christmas daybook for these 12 days of celebrating. We'll be spending Christmastide with some favorite short films and video clips. Join me, won't you? 

For an introduction read this post: Christmastide.

Note: If you're reading this in email, the formatting usually looks much better at the website. Just click the post title to get there.

 

Yelitza Castro makes the homeless men and women she cooks for feel like family. At StoryCorps, Yelitza spoke with her friend, Willie Davis, about the Christmas meal she cooked for him when he was homeless and how those meals changed his life.

The “stranger at the door” motif pervades Christmas folklore and, I imagine, is rooted in the crew of unknown friends who showed up at the manger and, later, at Mary and Joseph’s home. I hope you enjoy today’s stories, and please let me know if you have any of your own!

Watch:

  1. She cooked a Christmas meal that made me feel like family, StoryCorps

  2. A Christmas Memory About A Stolen Bike and An Unexpected Lesson About Generosity, StoryCorps

  3. Love Thy Neighbor, The Perennial Plate

  4. Rent A Family For the Holidays, CBS Sunday Morning

  5. The Greatest Gift, CBS Sunday Morning

  6. Giving Strangers A Christmas Morning, Mark Gagnon

 
“Almighty God, you have poured upon us the new light of your incarnate Word: Grant that this light, enkindled in our hearts, may shine forth in our lives; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.”
— Book of Common Prayer, Collect for First Sunday After Christmas

Do:

Extend your family

[from my 2012 post 12 Ways to Savor the 12 Days of Christmas]

“ The last two years we've missed our extended family something terrible at Christmas. We're hoping that will change in 2013; at the same time we're glad we've had the opportunity to experience Christmas without family nearby.  With twelve whole days to celebrate, we enjoyed spending a few of them with other people who were alone.”

(See all Christmas Daybook posts from 2017 here.)

ChristmasTamara Hill MurphyChristmastide 2018, [Look.Listen.Pray.Do.], video, family, Community