I received a Christmas letter from my friends, Kathie and Mark, who live in Seward, Neb. I went to school with Kathie at Concordia College back in the dark ages of the ‘70s. Mark was Kathie’s boyfriend at the time and they got married and had five little sweetpeas. They raised their children in the Christian faith. The kids have all grown up and gone to college. Some are married and starting families of their own. Kathie worked as a nurse for many years and assisted Mark with a successful career in the insurance business. They participated in the foster care program because they felt they had so many blessings that they wanted to "give something back." They are smart, successful, and caring individuals who are attentive to each other’s needs and the needs of their children ... and they have fun. In my eyes, they lived an exemplary life. OK, I’ll admit it. I have harbored an envious thought on occasion. Back to that Christmas letter. It started out with a quote from Charles Dickens: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." You’re probably saying to yourself, "What worst of times?" I left out one monumental detail from their lives and that is, Kathie has multiple sclerosis (MS). Each year it gets worse and the basics of daily existence become more and more difficult. If you’ve ever known anyone with MS or read anything about the symptoms, you’ll know that it is a nightmare. Still, they say in the letter, "We try to find the positives while we cope with the negatives." Most of the time we are unaware of the burdens people carry. And I believe that each one of us, at one time or another, can say, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." Our challenge is to focus on the best and help each other get through the worst. And, during this Christmas season we can turn our hearts to the ultimate "best of times," the birth of the Christ child. Christmas Alert: The library will be closed Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, Dec. 24-26. You don’t want to be left out in the cold with no reading material, so stop in today (Thursday) or tomorrow (Friday) to stock up on some good books. Also, register to win one of the books in the Friends of the Library Christmas drawing. New Year Alert: The Annual Adult Reading Program will begin Jan. 1, 2006. Read 12 books in three months and you get a fabulous prize and give the library a chance to win some extra cash for new books. Registration will begin after Christmas. One last thing, a new book on the new book shelf, "The Constant Princess," by Philippa Gregory. Katherine of Aragon, daughter of Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain, has been fated her whole life to marry Prince Arthur of England. When they meet and are married, the match becomes as passionate as it is politically expedient. The young lovers revel in each other's company and plan the England they will make together. But tragically, at age 15, Arthur falls ill and extracts from his 16-year-old bride a deathbed promise to marry his brother, Henry, become Queen, and fulfill their dreams and her destiny. Widowed and alone in the avaricious world of the Tudor court, Katherine has to sidestep her father-in-law's desire for her and convince him that her marriage to Arthur was never consummated, that there is no obstacle to marriage with Henry. For seven years, she endures the treachery of spies, the humiliation of poverty, and intense loneliness while she waits for the inevitable moment when she will step into the role she has prepared for all her life. Then, like her warrior mother, Katherine must take to the battlefield and save England when its old enemies, the Scots, come over the border and there is no one to stand against them but the new Queen.