Activities: Stories: The Bicker Family Story

			Activities: Stories: The Bicker Family Story

Once upon a time there was a family by the name of, "Bicker."
That was their name, because all they ever did when they got together was bicker.
They would argue and fight, and do their best to make each other feel awful.

This Christmas, like all others before, they were gathering at Ma and Pa Bicker's home. This year, Ma Bicker had arranged for each person to give one gift to one other person because there were so many family members.

So several weeks before Christmas, she wrote down the names of everyone who would be there, and sorted out who would give to whom. She was careful not to forget anyone; she even remembered the newest member of the family: Baby Emelia.

Well, as Christmas day grew nearer, family members arrived... by plane, by car, by train... and the house began to fill with people ... AND WITH HOLLERING AND BICKERING!

After dinner Christmas eve, so many people were so angry at each other they just stomped off to bed.

Christmas morning came and the family began to exchange their gifts. There was much bickering about who was to give to whom, and some people received clothes of the wrong size or toys of the wrong color... they were as a whole, not happy with what they had received.

When all the gifts had been taken from under the tree and been opened, Uncle Bob piped up and fussed, "I don't have a gift! Who forgot to give to me?" And they all started pointing at each other and denying that they were the ones to give to Bob.

Ma Bicker counted everyone and went to consult her list of givers and receivers. She couldn't figure out what had gone wrong! It was supposed to have worked perfectly!

While she was muttering over her list and Pa was yelling at her for messing Christmas up, and everyone else was carrying on... Bob realized what had happened: the gift for him was to have come from... Baby Emelia!

But she was too small to go out and buy a gift, so he jokingly went over to her and picked her up, looked into her eyes and asked her what she had for him for Christmas.

This gave everyone else reason to pause, amused.

Baby Emelia looked back at Bob, and as she did, the biggest, warm, full, baby smile spread across her face. It was such an honest smile that Bob couldn't help but return her a smile of his own.

He looked up, smiling, and told the family that Baby Emelia had given him the greatest gift there was: a smile. And his smile spread to the faces of everyone in the room,

and they all looked at each other and started to laugh... and the bickering simply ceased.

(Optional conclusion below may preempt listeners process)
(Perhaps you can elicit these ideas from the kids themselves.)

They realized how special it can be to gather with family, and how precious such a gift, the gift of a smile, can be.

"A smile costs nothing, but gives much. It enriches those who receive, without making poorer those who give. It takes but a moment, but the memory of it sometimes lasts forever. None is so rich or mighty that he can get along without it, and none is so poor but that he can be made rich by it.
A smile creates happiness in the home, fosters good will in business, and is the countersign of friendship. It brings rest to the weary, cheer to the discouraged, sunshine to the sad, and it is nature's best antidote for trouble. Yet it cannot be bought, begged, borrowed, or stolen, for it is something that is of no value to anyone until it is given away. Some people are too tired to give you a smile. Give them one of yours, as none needs a smile so much as he who has no more to give."

- author unknown

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