I teach religious education classes to high school sophomores and juniors at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish. Two years ago, our pastor Fr. Tim Shillcox gave each of us teachers a pretty cool gift for Christmas. It’s a dove Christmas tree ornament. I’m the kind of guy that just loves gifts like this. I like looking at decorations and knowing that there’s some kind if meaning and personal story behind it, rather than it just being something I picked up and Wal-Mart.

Plus, not only is this ornament a gift from our pastor, but there is a very cool story about where it came from and who made it.

So, not wanting to only see the ornament on a Christmas tree for a month each year, I decided to bring it to work and hang it in my office. Unfortunately, it disappeared a short time later. I assume that a cleaning person must have bumped it and it fell into the trash can right underneath where it hung. So, since it meant a lot to me to have it, I mentioned it to our religious education director. And she didn’t forget.

At our first meeting this week to prepare for the coming year, she gave me another one. Awesome! I’ll bring it to work tomorrow and hang it where the first one was (I’ve since moved the trash can). This made my week.