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One Lone Noel

It’s beginning to look NOT like Christmas. No snow, not much store shopping, limited family gatherings.  Kind of Ho-Ho-Hum.  So, I thought I would add some Christmas cheer by sharing a story about Christmas creativity.

I am a real bargain shopper, so when I saw that if I bought two large Noel signs for my front yard that I could get the third one free, I jumped at the chance.  Never mind that I really only needed one.  My plan was to order three, send back the two that I paid for and keep the free one!  How’s that for a plan?  I may have been born at night, but it wasn’t last night!

Well, quicker than expected the three packages arrived.  You can imagine my dismay when I dragged out the letters, one by one, and the letters spelled L-E-O-N! All three packages contained the same four individual letters! L-E-O-N!  Now, what was I to do?

Time for some creative thinking!  I laid the individual letters out before me.  Perhaps I could mix the letters in a different way to spell something Christmassy.  I thought I had found my solution when I realized that I could spell Neel Leon.  I figured I could place those two words beside my nativity.  I was dismayed when a friend, who had noticed my lawn letters, called to inform me that that was not how to spell neel.   Looked right to me, but just to be sure I called my friend Lana, who is an excellent speller.  “How do you spell Neel?”  She said there were two different spellings. (Actually, I had invented a third, but some people are picky about spelling) Not wanting to upset anyone, I decided to accept Lana’s suggestions.  Lana informed me that some people spell Neil, with an I, and some spelled Neal with an A. An I and an A! Neither of which did I have.  Drat!!!!  So, there went the “Neel Leon” idea.  I gathered my lawn letters and started again.

I lined my letters up LLL-EEE-OOO-NNN, and, went to reorganizing them into words.  For those who love this type of word game, try it!  I came up with 12 words, not all of which I am convinced were actual words, especially if you are picky about spelling.  For example, Lol is used all the time, but technically does not qualify as a “word.”  Besides Lol didn’t seem to work well with the serenity and peace I wanted to portray at this Christmas season.  I realized I could spell “No No Ellen,” but again, it just didn’t have that Christmas ring.  Then, I found the perfect solution.  With my letters, I spelled

“One Lone Noel.”  There was even a Noel in there with an extra L left over!  Sometimes I amaze myself!

So, sorry Leon, but I am going with ONE LONE NOEL.  It just fits the season better than LEON, LEON, LEON. 

Contributed by Carolin Primm