In 2009 Greg and I returned to Florida with our 15 boxes of Christmas decorations, which included the broken pieces of my kneeling santa. We celebrated 2 more Christmases, along the way beginning whta is becoming quite a kneeling Santa collection of statues, ornaments, magnets, snow globes and even earrings. My love for this concept has never wained.
It was December 12, 2011 that a new direction began for the story written all those years ago. It started with the no-name worship band we are in with our cousin Tim, and friends, Roy and Dan. Roy is married to Suzanne, and they are friends who live in our neighborhood. On that December evening our band was in transit about an hour south of Sarasota to share music in a Christian coffeehouse, Ginjah's Jah Cafe. As we loaded up at our house, I was carrying a 3 ring binder. Suzanne asked me what was in the binder and I told her it was a story I wrote years ago.
"We have a long ride ahead of us," she said. "Let me read it on the way."
That sounded OK to me, so I handed over the binder and got into the van. Roy and Suzanne got into their car and we caravanned down the road.
Suzanne was a teacher in Chicago and Roy was a school administrator in Chicago, so I was kind of excited that these two were going to hear the story. I wondererd how it would be received. I felt these former teachers might have some good insights into changes it might need or whether they thought it was viable to someday be published. I never dreamed they would have the reaction they did.