Sam Levenson tells a wonderful story about the birth of his first child. The first night home the baby would not stop crying. His wife frantically flipped through the pages of Dr. Spock to find out why babies cry and what to do about it. Since Spock's book is rather long, the baby cried a long time. Grandma was in the house, but since she had not read the books on child rearing, she was not consulted. The baby continued to cry. Finally, Grandma could be silent no longer. "Put down the book," she told her children, "and pick up the baby."

Good advice. Put down the book and pick up the baby. Spend time with your children. Particularly at Christmas time. We have the mistaken notion that good parents give their children lots of things. Wrong.

In a survey done of fifteen thousand school children the question was asked,"What do you think makes a happy family?" When the kids answered, they didn't list a big house, fancy cars, or new video games as the source of happiness. The most frequently given answer was "doing things together." Notice the joy with which Mary and Elizabeth greeted the news of their pregnancy.