One final present to give

If you're delighting in this joyful season with family and friends, count your blessings.

As Christmas Eve unfolds, loneliness may be the sole companion to our shut-in seniors, to people struggling with mental illness, to outcasts who just never seem to find their way into a circle of friendship.

For some - a family visiting Coeur d'Alene from Missoula comes to mind - Christmas time will forever more be synonymous with loss.

Yes, this is an uncomfortable topic during what should be the height of celebration. It's far easier to laugh as we watch Clark make a mess of the Griswold family Christmas. Tears are best preserved for George Bailey's salvation, for Scrooge's rebirth or Ralphie's revelation: An official Red Ryder, carbine action, 200-shot range model air rifle (with a compass in the stock).

As the notes on today's page illustrate, a great many citizens have given what money they could to ensure all children in Kootenai County would have something to look forward to on Christmas Day. We applaud them - every one. And we pause to consider what more each of us might do.

This season reminds us that the greatest gift of all is love, something that costs little to acquire and nothing to dispense. Tantalizing treasures under the tree and fine meals to feed the familial masses, these are tangible expressions of love. But they're things with expiration dates. To spread lasting happiness, we should give our time and attention. Nothing beats the gift of easing an aching heart.