Tonight's picture was taken on Christmas day in 2007. Mattie was staying in a hotel room with us in Florida. We went on a family Christmas trip with my parents in 2007, and once you read my mom's story below, the picture will make more sense. Needless to say, take notice of Mattie's Christmas tree here. It was actually made out of green feathers (it reminded me of something out of a Dr. Seuss book), and the ornaments, we hand made out of construction paper. This tree was so unique that I packed it in our luggage as a remembrance of Christmas 2007, and I still have it on display in Mattie's bedroom.
Poem of the day: New Year's Poem by Agnes Marshall
Angels in heaven whisper
a new year dawns today
for all our heartbroken loved ones on earth
where we couldn't stay
we'll celebrate here in heaven
sending many blessings down
to the ones who gave all to love us
without any regrets or frowns
blessings to all we left behind
to us angels you were the special kind
On behalf of Peter and I, we want to wish our readers a very happy and healthy 2010. We are grateful for your continued support and for tuning into the blog and our Foundation website. As I am sure you can imagine, today is a very bittersweet day for us. In fact, New Year's may be just as hard as Christmas. In addition to how I am emotionally doing, I am also physically wiped out. Peter met me for lunch today, and what I quickly could assess was I wasn't hungry, couldn't hold my head up, and felt like I had a fever. So instead of visiting Mary, Ann's mom, and attending her New Year's party at her assisted living facility, I decided to go back to bed. I have been in bed all afternoon, and still do not feel much better. Thankfully Dr. Bob came to the rescue again and I am back on antibiotics.
As my energy level is low, I am very grateful that my mom wrote the second part of "The Best Christmas Ever" so that I could share it with you tonight. I hope you enjoy this story as much as we did. I think it gives you some perspective into Mattie's character, energy, and sweetness.
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The Best Christmas Ever
Part II
By Virginia R. Sardi
Mattie loved Christmas and looked forward, like any child, to all the preparations made for the anticipated festivities of the holiday season. The simple activity of counting off the days until Christmas on his Advent Calendar generated an excitement all its own because he could visually see how close he was getting to Christmas Day by counting how many windows remained unopened on his calendar knowing that when they were all opened, it would signify that Christmas Day had arrived with all the promises it held of unexpected treats and surprises. Mattie was taught at SSSAS the religious significance of Christmas and knew that no Christmas was complete without a Nativity scene depicting the birth of Christ. He understood its importance and was happy to have both a Nativity scene and a beautiful Christmas tree in his house to celebrate the holiday. Mattie’s creativity knew no bounds for he with the help of his Dad created a colorful display of beautiful lights on trees and bushes in the private park like area outside his apartment that all of his neighbors came to admire every year. They looked forward to it as an event that marked the season of Christmas and it became a community tradition to be appreciated by all who lived there. Here was a little boy who really understood what it meant to have Christmas spirit and knew instinctively how to share it with others.
How could he not love Christmas when the world suddenly turned red, his favorite color, and was everywhere he turned? How could he not love Christmas when it fired up his imagination with so many exciting ideas? The possibilities seemed endless and kept Mattie’s fingers and mind whirling around in search of eye catching and mind stimulating ideas to incorporate into his holiday art work. Christmas symbolism seemed embedded in his DNA and made all the fun things of Christmas like jingle bells, snowflakes and sugar plum fairies so natural for him to love. You could be sure his mind was working overtime wondering what Santa was up to in the North Pole and whether he would have something special in his sleigh for Mattie at Christmas as he playfully greeted you with a jolly Santa like ho-ho-ho and awaited that special visit from Santa himself!
However, Christmas 2007 was to be a little different. He would be celebrating Christmas Day with his family in Boca Raton, Florida. He liked the idea but had a major concern about Santa Claus. How would Santa Claus be able to bring him his gifts if he was in Florida at a hotel? Mattie, being the precocious little boy that he was, worried that Santa Claus would not find him in Florida on Christmas Day. It was a very logical question under the circumstances and required serious consideration because Mattie did not want to miss out on a visit from Santa. His mom addressed the matter by explaining that she wrote to Santa Claus informing him where Mattie would be at Christmas and assured Mattie there would be no mix-up in Santa’s deliveries. After a few probing questions about how Santa processed his mail, he was satisfied that Santa would find him in Boca Raton and deliver his presents to the hotel. He then thought about another sticky problem that could trip up Santa. Mattie noticed that even though the lobby of the hotel had a large beautifully decorated Christmas tree, it was not a good place for Santa to leave his presents since it was located in a public place. He had a point! He concluded that the best place for Santa to leave his presents would be in his hotel room but that presented a problem too! There was no Christmas tree in his room for Santa to find and he was troubled that Santa might not leave presents without one. To resolve that issue, we all agreed that he needed a Christmas tree for his room so that Santa would know where to leave his presents. Mattie was taking no chances that Santa would have any excuses to forget him on Christmas Day! In listening to him articulate his concerns about Santa and his presents, I was impressed with the logic of his arguments and thought that he would have made an excellent lawyer given how logical he was in presenting his case. We had a couple of days to find a tree but since we were so close to Christmas we knew our chances of finding a good tree were not good. There was only one place to go to get a Christmas tree that was practical for our purposes that would also pass muster with Mattie. We headed right for Target and there we found and purchased the perfect Christmas tree for the occasion. It was approximately 12 to 18 inches tall and made with beautiful man-made emerald green feathers. It had its own base and Mattie thought it was pretty cool as he had never seen anything like it before. Neither had we! We decorated it with some colorful Christmas ornaments and added some tinsel and Mattie was delighted with the result. Mattie was now content that he had a tree in his room an observed that this room had a balcony, just like he had at home and figured that Santa would see the connection right away. Mattie understood that Santa would come only when he was sleeping. He was told that Santa could not be disturbed when he distributed his gifts to children because otherwise he might not get to everybody on his list. Mattie intended to fully comply because he was not taking any chances that he might upset Santa’s routine and miss out on getting his presents. As I noted before, he was a cautious little fellow who based his actions on the stories of Santa’s legendary love of children and his annual Christmas visit with his sled and reindeer to bring toys to children all over the world. In his mind, he found the perfect solution to get Santa to deliver his presents to him in Florida on Christmas Eve using a logic that could only be seen through the eyes of an impressionable and imaginative five year old who believed in the magic of Christmas.
Is it any wonder that Christmas morning was a joyful experience for Mattie and turned out to be everything he hoped for? It was an unforgettable experience for us to watch him bursting with happiness and laughing with delight as he opened all his presents. Just looking at his smiling face was our reward for participating behind the scenes as Santa’s helpers orchestrating the timely arrival of his presents from Washington, DC and Los Angeles, California to Florida so that they could be under the tree for Mattie to discover on Christmas morning. The tree may have been an artificial pretender but Mattie’s joy was very real and is a timeless remembrance for us of the beauty and purity of his childhood innocence that will remain a lasting memory of happier times. When I think of Mattie’s angelic face aglow with pure happiness on that beautiful Christmas morning in Florida, I can say with certainty that this was the Best Christmas Ever!
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I would like to end tonight's posting with two messages. The first message is from my mom. She wrote, "Have you ever heard the phrase, “Once in a blue moon?” It usually refers to an event that one does not expect to occur very often. It might be of interest for you to know that December 2009 is just such a month, a month of the Blue Moon. It means that the there are two full moons in one month, the second one is called the Blue Moon. This event happens approximately every two to three years. The first one has already appeared this month and the next one will take place on New Year's Eve, December 31st, I will be looking for the Blue Moon Thursday night, and I hope you will too for it is always exciting to gaze upon, “Mattie Moon” as he lights up our world twice in one month."
The second message is from my friend, Charlie. Charlie wrote, "Thank you for sharing about Mattie's early days; it explains a lot about his very close bond with you and Peter. How wonderful that you found a place like RCC and a teacher like Margaret who helped Mattie open and blossom into the boy he was meant to be. It is terribly frustrating when you cannot communicate; I've seen that reaction in deaf children who have not been taught to sign, in autistic children who haven't found a way to communicate and even in aphasic adults who've lost the ability to speak. We forget we are programmed to be social beings and when we cannot, things go very wrong for us. As always I admire your patience and determination to do the right things as difficult as they may be on behalf of those you love. As we go forward into this new year, I will take Mattie memories with me. I hold you gently in my thoughts."
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