{"id":1078,"date":"2015-12-18T14:47:51","date_gmt":"2015-12-18T14:47:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crazy4fiction.com\/?p=1078"},"modified":"2021-09-28T21:01:49","modified_gmt":"2021-09-28T21:01:49","slug":"a-favorite-christmas-memory-by-francine-rivers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.tyndale.com\/crazy4fiction\/a-favorite-christmas-memory-by-francine-rivers\/","title":{"rendered":"A Favorite Christmas Memory by Francine Rivers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"line-height: 13.5pt;margin: 12pt 0in;text-align: center;background: white\"><strong>Morning, Crazy4Fiction friends! With the holidays upon us, we are reflecting on what this time means and some precious moments that make this time so special. Francine Rivers is on the blog today sharing one of her most prized memories from this special time.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height: 13.5pt;margin: 12pt 0in;text-align: center;background: white\">~*~<\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height: 13.5pt;background: white;margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in\"><span style=\"font-size: 10.5pt;font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;color: #1c0732\">A friend asked me what my most memorable Christmas was. That\u2019s easy.\u00a0 Rick and I were married on December 21, 1969.\u00a0 I\u2019ve thought since then, what a terrible thing to do to my family \u2013 have a wedding so close to Christmas \u2013 but it was the only day we could get the church.\u00a0 Rick was a Marine and the Vietnam War was raging, and we didn\u2019t want to wait.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height: 13.5pt;background: white;margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in\"><span style=\"font-size: 10.5pt;font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;color: #1c0732\">We had an evening candlelight wedding at the Pleasanton Presbyterian Church and our reception at Haps Restaurant.\u00a0 We didn\u2019t leave until very late, and we were both tired.\u00a0 We drove all of ten miles and checked into a hotel on the outskirts of Livermore and shared a bottle of champagne my father had given Rick for the occasion.\u00a0 The next day, we headed for our honeymoon \u201clodge\u201d, the Rivers\u2019 family cabin in Pinecrest, a tiny town nestled in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.\u00a0 It had snowed.\u00a0 A lot! \u00a0We had to trek through piles of it and dig our way into the cabin.\u00a0 Rick built a nice fire in the Franklin stove while I got dinner ready: fried chicken and boiled artichokes.\u00a0 After dinner, we settled into the lumpy hide-a-bed in front of the Franklin stove because the bedroom felt like a storage freezer.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height: 13.5pt;background: white;margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in\"><span style=\"font-size: 10.5pt;font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;color: #1c0732\">We awakened to rats invading the aircraft potty that served as a garbage can in the kitchen.\u00a0 Rick banged the coal shovel on the floor and we heard the noisy scurry of several LARGE rats.\u00a0 They came back quickly, and were not again frightened by shovel or shouting.\u00a0 Perhaps if Rick had had his M14! \u00a0We moved into the bedroom and let the rats enjoy their Christmas dinner in peace.\u00a0 When we returned for the family Christmas Eve gathering, everyone teased the newlyweds about their three day honeymoon in a frigid, rat-infested cabin with snow up around the windows.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height: 13.5pt;background: white;margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in\"><span style=\"font-size: 10.5pt;font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;color: #1c0732\">Over the years, we have gone away for a few days to a nice hotel in Monterey, San Francisco, or somewhere along the Mendocino Coast.\u00a0 We have a nice restaurant dinner out or served in our room.\u00a0\u00a0 After 45 years of marriage (46 this year), we still consider that first Christmas together one of our fondest memories \u2013 rats and all.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height: 13.5pt;background: white;margin: 12.0pt 0in 12.0pt 0in\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-1079\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.tyndale.com\/crazy4fiction\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2015\/12\/Francine-and-Rick.jpg\" alt=\"Francine and Rick\" width=\"500\" height=\"498\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Morning, Crazy4Fiction friends! With the holidays upon us, we are reflecting on what this time means and some precious moments that make this time so special. Francine Rivers is on the blog today sharing one of her most prized memories from this s...","protected":false},"author":1266,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[216,58,18],"tags":[33],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Crazy4Fiction | A Favorite Christmas Memory by Francine Rivers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.tyndale.com\/crazy4fiction\/a-favorite-christmas-memory-by-francine-rivers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Crazy4Fiction | A Favorite Christmas Memory by Francine Rivers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Morning, Crazy4Fiction friends! With the holidays upon us, we are reflecting on what this time means and some precious moments that make this time so special. Francine Rivers is on the blog today sharing one of her most prized memories from this special time. ~*~ A friend asked me what my most memorable Christmas was. 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