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by Lauren Alan
05/02/25
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Author requests article critique

"What do you think of all this snow, honey?" chiropractor Neil Langston asked his five-year-old daughter, Lizzie, as they traveled through the mountains of Big Bear Lake.

Lizzie's eyes were wide with excitement. "Snow is even prettier in real life than it is in my storybooks, Daddy!" she exclaimed.

Neil chuckled a little. He was hoping that his daughter would have a good time. This was their first Christmas without his late wife, Laura, who had passed away from cancer during the summer. He had wanted to do something special for his little girl to cheer her up, so he decided to make her dream of seeing snow come true. Plus, it felt good to get away from the house. The first Christmas without his wife was too hard for him to handle at their house in Pacific Palisades.

Neil also planned to take his daughter to meet his family. He hadn't seen his family since Laura was pregnant with Lizzie. He remembered how cruel and disparaging his mother, Gayla, had been toward Laura just because Neil was white and Laura was Mexican. The estrangement became so strong that, two years later when Neil's father died, his mother asked him not to come to the funeral. Neil hoped and prayed to Jesus Christ that his mother would be kinder to him and to his daughter. After all, enough time had passed. He sighed and gripped the steering wheel a little more tightly as he drove.

The cabin had a very family-friendly appearance. It was made of logs and had lots of books and games for both children and adults. Neil and Lizzie played checkers and Scrabble, and Neil read to Lizzie from a children's Bible that had been sitting on the shelf. He read her the story of the first Christmas. She sat on his lap and snuggled on his chest as they looked at the picture of Baby Jesus in His mother's arms as she sat by the manger.

"Why did Baby Jesus have to sleep in that cold barn with all the stinky animals, Daddy?" Lizzie asked.

"Mary and Joseph couldn't find any other place to stay, sweetheart," Neil replied. "There wasn't room anywhere else."

"Oh." Lizzie shivered a little. The temperature in the mountains was significantly below what it was where they lived, and the heater wasn't working. "I'm cold, Daddy," she said.

Neil gently pressed his lips to his daughter's forehead before he wrapped a blanket around them and held her more tightly. "I've got you, baby," he whispered as he stroked her long, jet-black curls. He began to hum "The First Noel", Lizzie's favorite Christmas carol. As she drifted off to sleep, he closed his eyes and prayed that the visit with his mom would go well. She hadn't asked him to visit her, but he thought it was time to make amends. "Dear Jesus, please let Mom be kind to my daughter and me and restore the relationship I have with her," he whispered. Before long, sleep overtook him, and he was snoring.

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