Christmas Stories By Linda Randall

wishing you and yours a merry christmas! it's so easy to take a photo and open it up in microsoft paint click on the "A" for Text and start writing a short note. then you can post it on facebook, on your blog and email it out to friends and family for the holiday season!

i also bought about 60 christmas cards this year so i could do that right. but i just realized I don't have their addresses lol

oh well hand delivery is fun too!

it's a good way to play mail man if you have younger children.

make sure when you do it you wear a little Santa hat for fun. you can purchase those at the dollar store for a buck.

we had our christmas this year with the boys on dec 20th 2011 it was a tuesday.

now i've never thought of this before but to have your "christmas" on a day when everything is open can be loads of fun.

IDEA

you can have a progressive dinner where you go for soup at one place, then salad at another, your meal at another and then dessert at home with a cup of tea to warn you up.

take pictures along the way and create a trail of memories to post on your social networks or in your own albums that you have at home.

i've not made any photos per say of any of my pictures lol

my kids photos go up to ages 17 and 15. then I went digital.

i should print up a few of them because if facebook ever goes down so do my photos. I don't think i have them backed up anywhere and that would be a crying shame.

so the boys came over and wanted to do something. they suggested we go to the pen centre.

i had my own idea of what to do... take them somewhere they haven't been in over 16 years lol

so we went to see lock 3 museum along the welland canal parkway in st catharines ontario canada

we had to give jeffrey directions while he drove us for the first time in HIS car.

that felt funny but it was pretty cool.. he's got a lead foot like his ma and likes to drive fast (not good for someone at age 21 you can get speeding tickets doing that and then his insurance will go up!)

i didn't open my yap or say anything. If my mom was alive she would have had PLENTY to say.

I figure he's an adult now and knows better. He makes his own decisions.

Pays his own car payments and car insurance so it's his call and as his mother i'm to butt out.

why cause a stressful situation when you don't really need too?

unless it was excessive and putting my life in danger then of course i'd be a good parent and say something then.

he was having fun showing off and i was laughing and all i said was "you drive like your mother...."

he slowed down HA HA HA

anyways we got to the museum and took this photo below outside. Good thing because everything else I did was on video.

I'll be posting those in the near future (it's christmas time and i'm busy)

we walk in and go right into the museum.. it's free now.. you can donate money if you wish too.

there was an ancient medieval chinese exhibit very cool, then they had an early 1940s house for christmas over the years with photos of st catharines and people doing things for the past hundred years.. that was something to see the old stove and fridge they used to have. it's like our mini fridges I cannot imagine how they did it.

back in the early 1900s it was common to have over 10 to 15 children. (before birth control i guess)

so for them to fit the amount of food required it obviously didn't go in the fridge they had other means to store their food.

my fridge is stuffed to the brim with every goodie that went on sale.

I bought WAY too much food so i'm still eating it two weeks after my christmas party.

i made sure all the dates are for mid january.

helps to save on groceries.

and the ham we bought were going to put a few slices in freezer bags in the fridge for next months menu planning.

so anyways sorry for that rabbit trail.

the boys were fascinated for about 5 mins.. then they spotted the lacrosse exhibit at the back (the one i'm not too interested in because i'm technically not into sports)

here i am trying to show them all the "historical" data written on the walls and they keep going to the back of the museum...

they were frustrated about something then i walks back there to see what's going on and see two little kids playing in this big huge netted area.

it was 30 minutes later after the boys went back there several times, the kids left and i hear them whooping and hollering in the back and i'm like what on earth is going on?

i didn't realize that inside the netted area were two lacrosse sticks and two balls . :)

so all four of us had fun for the next 45 minutes trying to shoot these balls into the little hoop sititng in the middle of this hockey net!

we tried for 30 mins to get it in.... i'm video taping..

i get tired and go to the washroom.

wouldn't you know it...

all 3 of them score while i'm gone..

is that murphys law or what?

so i got them to do some more shots and filmed those as well.

not sure what i got .. i wanted to save some battery power for opening presents..

we get home and open gifts..

my camera dies about halfway through..

i was soooo ticked off!

then i grabbed my old camera and was disgusted at the lousy picture quality.

for so long i thought it was the "lighting" that made my photos dark.

Not so.

It's because it was only 7 pixels.

the new camera is 14 pixels and on an overcast day it appears like it's bright day light on the camera.

so the moral of this story is this.

have two batteries fully charged for your camera...

and buy something with loads of pixels to get good clear bright photos lol

It's time for the summer deals to roll into fall and christmas decor to show up out in the displays. If you look around the store check out the clearance sections. This is when LAST years stock goes on sale as they try to clear it out and make room for the new line of products to entice you to buy buy buy and buy some more. ;)

If you have about 20 gifts to buy for christmas, break down each month's budget to handle 5 gifts at a time.

make a list of who you need to buy for and what types of gifts your looking for and start bargain shopping now.

I noticed while walking through the public library this week that there's a photo of a mini christmas tree on some of the fiction books spines. I guess that's how you know it's a christmas story. :)

There's a few authors that seem to only write about Christmas as a mystery, or chick lit style of story. There's also family stories where they share something like 'chicken for the soul' stuff.

Soon the theatres will be selling their gift card packages for christmas gifts. YOu can alway stock up and buy some for birthday gifts but be forewarned, the coupons go from Jan to April, so It would have to be someone that has a birthday in nov, dec or early jan to get your money's worth.

I bought mine in 2009 (best package deal) and 2010. I hated the 2010 ones, because they don't tell you what they are until it's too late.

So I'm going to give you some pointers.

You have to be one of those people that likes the combos - popcorn and pop, hot dogs and pizza in order to get the best value.

Most of the coupons were for saving money.

Now I don't know if this year they will do the tooney movies for a week?

I haven't heard anything yet.

They usually do it during the holidays...

I like under shirts cause you can wear them all year around.

in the summer when it's hot and humid they are nice to keep you cool and give you a great tan line on the shoulders and neck.

In the winter you can wear them under your long sleeved shirts or sweater for extra warmth.

I like them for bed time too in the summer.

Instead of a whole nightie, just wear the shirt with undies :)

I just had to share this funny photos with you.

we had a bit of snow here in st catharines ontario canada on march 24, 2011 and I tossed a snowball at harry without paying attention

look where it landed. LOL

Several of us went together on Christmas Day Dec 25, 2010 to Stella's Restaurant located on James Street in St Catharines Ontario Canada

It was a lovely dinner served by volunteers.

They had tables set up and a great big christmas tree.

Candles on the table and soft music playing in the background.

Over in the corner Santa was handing out gifts to all the little boys and girls there.

it was nice to see the community reaching out to the homeless.

they have about 150 people each year that attend this dinner.

Some of the other meals provided for other events fed 400 people...

It was so cute putting a santa claus red and white jacket on our toy poodle Daisy.

She turned 11 years old on Dec 26, 2010.

This is our first family photo with the three of us together and I've had this dog for 5 years now...

Lesson Learned

Usually my gas bill is around $33/month

In May I received a whopping bill for $85 and was told that for the past four months because of the snow surrounding our gas meter they were unable to do a proper reading so all those lovely bills for $33 were just estimates!

Lesson learned!

Always clean the snow from your gas, water and hydro meters :)

Steps 1 - 10 are the basic steps on how I take a photo and make a card, valentine, word press theme and all sorts of other cool ideas that I'll be sharing on my squidoo lenses.

I hope you can follow my instructions if not, there are detailed lenses on squidoo to help. :)

I used these steps to make this little card for another lens of mine.
happy valentines day twilight new moon wolf pack

This is how I use power point to make my little christmas cards, valentines, happy st patricks day, birthday or anniversary cards with my own photos.

Step 1

Open up Microsoft Power Point program
At the top right is a round circle called the "office button"

when you put your cursor over it a menu pops up.

Office Button

Click on "new"

Choose "Blank and Recent"

Choose "Create"

You can choose to move the text and title boxes or click on them and delete them. It's up to you.

I usually insert a picture and then I click on the sides to expand it to fill the whole page there.

click on "insert"

Click on "picture"

Now you can move the photo around in the white box or what I do is expand it to FILL the whole white area so it's on TOP of the text, title options.

This simple step will save you some aggrivation later.

Click on "home" tab
Font

Click on drop down arrow

Style of Font

Size

choose 18 for smaller spaces, 40 for larger.

Sizes 18 - 22 (bold) is standard for most projects.

word arts another style or option to choose and there's ways to format it too.

Next I choose to insert word art into the document and write Merry christmas.

I choose a smaller font so it fits anything from size 18 - 40 is good.

Click on the "Text"

at the top tab you'll see "Drawing Tools"

click on this to "Format" your "Text"

you can change the colors, fill, effects (3D, or different angles) and add lovely different things.

Always "SAVE AS" for your changes.

Click on the "office Button" in the top left hand corner and ALWAYS choose

SAVE AS...
Each time you make ANY changes to your slide.

PPT_Save_As JPEG File Interchange Format .jpg

Power point asks if you want to save ALL slides and export them

choose Yes

Every Slide if you have more than one in this file

If only ONE

then choose current slide only

It's a good idea to make all your SLIDES FIRST before saving..

when you export it each time, it creates a whole new file folder in "documents"

under the NAME of what you saved it as. (file Name)

it's confusing for me, half the time I have to go back and look for it.

It's annoying. because once it's saved as...

It ends up in a file folder but is marked as slide 1, 2, 3, etc..

then you have to GO into the file folder and rename each slide to what you want it to be.

thats what I do to make it easier.

rename a file or picture in documents

Look in "documents"

for a folder with the Name of your photo on it

open it and pick slide 1 or which ever you want.

right click and find "rename"

Click on it (left mouse button) and fill in the name you want.

then hit "enter" to save it.

I found a cute little red bird house at white meadow farms so I'm having some fun with it.

Using photos of white meadow farms I'm making little christmas cards, and word press themes with my photos and posting some of them here.

I made my own themes for all my blogs using all but two photos to make them.

I got tired of wordpress changing the theme and messing up my blog.

Hope you like them.

The one's that are in polaroid form you can copy and paste and use them for your cards or emails to friends.

Standing in line out in the cold, I watched as people walked by. They looked sad and grumpy. Their clothes weren't very clean and yet they had an air of expectation about them. It was an hour later, six degrees above zero, cold and shivering they let us in.

The little girl in front of me looked up and smiled and said, "Merry Christmas."

I smiled back and said, "Merry Christmas to you too!"

We eventually made our way in, after producing the little coveted red ticket.

They ripped it in half and gave us back the other half.

That's for the door prize draw later...

Nice..

We scampered around the tables looking for a place to sit, with our party of five...

We found a table sat down and waited.

I got up and took a few pictures because I wanted some before and after footage.

The unhappy, sad faces transformed into giggles and shouts of laughter, merriment was in the air as Walter Ostanek, the Polka King played on his accordion in a band of three or four (I forgot to count) Christmas carols.

Some of us sang, others attempted to sing.

I was a wee bit off key but I did not have time to warm up my vocal cords.

But I did get something for the first time in six years...

You see I lost daddy in 2004, and mommy in 2006..

with them went the spirit of christmas.

I refused to celebrate Christmas, and every year I was extremely depressed.

This year, I had a break through...

I buried the ghosts of Christmases Past and saw for the first time, lives changing right before my eyes.

I found myself being thankful and wanting to join in...

A wise woman named Maureen came to visit me last weekend or rather I visited her.

She invited us over for a lovely home made lasagna dinner.

It was delicious!

Needless to say, she too has lost her loved ones.

She gave me some expert advice..

Start your own Christmas Tradition.

There it was.. the lost feeling was replaced with a feeling of warmth.. yes that's what I'll do.

And today I got to share my first "Christmas" dinner with about 400 homeless people.

They say there is power in numbers.

There is healing as well.

I can be thankful that I have a warm house to live in, food on my table and new clothes on my back.

I don't live out in the street in a box.

I don't have to run from church to church night after night, looking for something to eat and a place to rest my cold and weary body...

I am blessed, and today I knew just how much it meant to me.

To appreciate the little things in life.

To stop feeling sorry for myself because the people I loved the most in the world were gone...

I'm starting a new Christmas tradition.

I'm having a party and my neighbors and friends are invited.

I never ever got to know any of my neighbors over the years , when living with mom and dad, we didn't associate with anyone who wasn't going to church.

A strict Christian up bringing left me as a sheltered child, that grew into a fearful adult, one who was too shy to converse or make friends with strangers.

Living with my sweetie Harold, I've learned to spread my faulty wings and fly around like a butterfly, to make new friends and acquaintances and to experience the joy of fellowshipping with people.

It's a wonderful thing when you get a Christmas card from a new friend, thanking you for being in their life.

I wanted to cry when our friend paul gave us a lovely card with his heartwarming message on it...

To be thanked for being a friend.. never had that before...

so here I am blessed out of my socks, having a new Christmas tradition and looking forward to Christmas day.

I even got a tree with pretty lights on it..

it's been six years now... so I'm looking forward to Christmas and new years for the first time in a long time.

Take some time out of your busy day to help someone, spread some cheer to those around you and show them the true meaning of giving and Christmas... you will feel good inside...

Tim was around six years old and Jeff was four and one of the things I remember was us being outside rolling up snowballs to make a snow man. It took all three of us to push the big ball of snow around.

We had fun laughing and then we would build snow forts and have little snow ball fights. The ending ritual was to decorate our snowman with stuff from the kitchen.

We used radishes for the eyes and a big carrot for the nose. Only one problem, both of the kids wanted to put the carrot on the snow man. So I let them take turns one by one. It was funny cause Tim was older so he knew to put the carrot under the two eyes. Jeffrey wanted to be different, so he put the carrot ABOVE the eyes.

Then the two of them argued about WHERE the nose should go. That was my cue to ask, "Who want's a hot chocolate with marshmallows?"

Both would squeal with glee and the carrot would be forgotten. As they trooped into the house, I darted back and fixed the nose to be where it should, right between the two eyes. LOL

Here's a photo from england. this little girls rabbit decided to EAT the nose off of her snowman when she wasn't looking.

I sat down at the kitchen table to fill out some christmas cards. I haven't done anything like this for twenty years. It felt kind of strange. I was trying to remember who was coming to our party this month. I should have a guest list and I do but I seem to have lost it, yet again. The life of a writer, it seems like anything that's not written on my computer or in my day to day planner, somehow flies the coop.

To make a long story short. I took some time to write a two sentence thoughtful prose for each person to let them know how they have touched my life in some way. I can't wait to see the smiles on their faces as they read my little jokes or poems.
Linda Randall

for party planning ideas check out

http://www.squidoo.com/partytimeforadults

http://www.squidoo.com/ideagirlchristmas

Saturday Dec 19,2009 - We had our Christmas Party with Harold's side of the Family. Darren and Carol were our hosts, along with Chloe and Ashley. Kathy and John popped in for a visit too. Amongst the wars of conversation over our bellies, the weight we had gained in a year and cars, we managed to all settle down to a ravenous feast of foods and goodies, all prepared by Carol. Who is a marvelous hostess and she should write a book about it, really! I shared my feast on the idea girl says word press as well. It was beef on a bun, cabbage rolls, perogies, cheese balls, pizza dip and tostito scoops nachos, sweet and sour meatballs and loads of other snacks. I was full to the brim and couldn't move. I had two screwdrivers (oj and vodka) and Harry had several beers.

Then Kathy and John left and we all played this new game of Monopoly. It's electronic, you have a swipe card VISA and you start with $15 million dollars. Nice!

The properties range from 1 million to 4 million to buy and your rents are 40,000 to millions of dollars! LOL

My biggest landslide payout was 1 million 200,000 from Harold. He landed on one of my utilities and had to pay 12x 100k on the card LOL

He was so mad at me, because I had previously paid him 250,000 the turn before mine. So I got my money back and then some.

We had a good time for a couple of hours. Then we finally ended the game, no one could buy houses or hotels because of the diversity of properties.

I won with $25 million - 20 million in cash on the VIsa and 5 million worth of properties ( I bought about 8 properties that I had landed on.)

The key to winning is this.

Get the utilities, railroads and any properties that you normally land on and what other people land on.

The side with Boardwalk, I only bought the airport, but then I did miss out on rents from 3 of the properties had I bought them. But then again my opponents would have been out of the game sooner too.

I ripped myself off of millions of dollars.

When you own two utilities the pay out increases from 40k to 100k x the number on the dice.

I had the two at the VERY beginning of the game and it wasn't until 2 hours later I realized that I wasn't charging the RIGHT rental amount LOL

That's what I get for not reading that TINY little print on my cards..

Whenever I would sit down to read a story, I would always grab some cookies and milk. It kept the kids somewhat occupied while I was getting things ready.

I would hold the book up so that they could see the picture before I read the passage.

I would hold it up again, after reading the passage and ask if they had any questions.

Sometimes you read a word or two that they will not understand.

It's best to describe the word in detail and give some sort of visual of what it means as well.

You could have them read a sentence or two, if they are restless.

For the younger ones, pick really short books with big pictures (to keep their attention span.)

Chewy Chocolate Eatmore Bars
Makes about 24
3/4 cup honey
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1-1/2 cups mini marshmallows
3 cups rice krispies
1 cup salted peanuts

In a large saucepan over medium heat, melt together the honey and peanut butter and bring to a boil. Stir in chocolate chips and marshmallows, stirring until smooth. Add the cereal and peanuts. Blend well and remove from heat. Pour into a lightly greased 9x13 inch pan and pat firmly with spatula. Let cool slightly and cut into bars before hardening.

I remember when I was a little girl, how I loved dancing at Christmas Time.

My favorite song was Rocking Around The Christmas Tree

I would always go to my Aunt Margie's place for a Christmas Party.

She would spike the egg nogg and have punch for us kids.

Dolly Parton and Elvis Presley would be singing Christmas Carols in the background.

All of us kids would go up to the spare bedroom where there was this big jewelry box and chest.

The girls would play dress up with jewels and old wedding gowns.

I think my Aunt must have been a brides maid many times.

They were all fancy bridal gowns of lavender, yellow, pink and pale blue.

Dinner was a treat.

My Aunt and Uncle used to cook up about 20 different dishes to choose from.

They were well off, so we had a feast.

Everything was homemade, including the pastries for dessert.

Those were the good old days.

I miss those days when Grandma and Grandpa were alive.

I pretty much stopped celebrating Christmas when I lost both of my parents within two years of each other.

This Christmas I don't even feel like celebrating.

Instead of putting up a 6ft tree and decorating it for 2 hours like I used to, I bought this dinky little tree that's already decorated.

It's not even one foot tall.

But It's Christmas to me.

Small and simple.

No frills, or big presents anymore.

I just have my tree, a few gifts and friends.

I never see my family anymore, most of my loved one's have passed away.

The one's that have survived, I never hear from and well I guess they've just forgotten about me.

But it's okay.

I've found other families that are willing to adopt me at Christmas.

Parents that have loads of kids already but they always make room for two more little orphans.

That's what we call ourselves, because both of us lost our parents.

They were our best friends and we spent every single day with them until they left this earth.

We miss them all the time.

Even after not seeing them for four years, (for him it's ten years) we still cry about it at times.

Christmas is the hardest because we used to sit around a big table and have a turkey dinner and we'd be laughing and poking fun at each other.

This week I found out that my friend who is 43 had a heart attack.

She died and came back to life.

I was one of thousands of people praying for her to come back to us and she did.

I don't know how long she'll be staying but it makes me think about how short life is.

We can be gone within seconds.

Some will live a long life, while others will leave at any time.

It's important to say hello to your loved ones.

I think it's time that I do that myself.

I'll let them all know I'm still kicking around.

And I'll hug them, tell them I love them and that I miss them too.

At least I'll feel better, that I set things right.

I won't feel so alone anymore, because family is important.

You need to remember that, settle your differences, ask for forgiveness and let the love of the season shine through your souls.

A Christmas Tribute to the one's I love and miss.

We had moved to a nice big two storey house and were living with my grandfather. I remember the front room of the house for I was not allowed to go into his room. There were naked women on the wallpaper in black and white. I was five years old and it was the month of December.

We had a great time picking out our tree at the local farm. We brought it into our lovely living room which had ceilings that stretched to nine feet. The tree fit nicely in the corner where the single wall plug was located. We had moved the television to the other side of the room and hooked it up to an extension cord that ran under the ratty and tattered carpet.

The tree was our Christmas treat because we didn't have very much money. I used to love going over to my Aunt's place for she was an avid baker. The short bread cookies with the sprinkles on them in shapes of trees, wreaths and little snowmen.

The gingerbread cookies and the gingerbread house was the best part! Making the white icing and applying the colorful candies, red and white candy-canes and the spearmint leaves. Half the time we would be munching on the candy and not putting on our work of art. At night we would suffer with our many tooth aches and sugar rushes. I would get a headache if I had eaten too much candy in the daytime. I've since learned to control my cravings for sugar.

I loved wrapping presents and at the age of five when you don't have any money to buy some you will use anything in the house. In this case anything goes! My father was a carpet layer so I would wrap up the blades from his knife. He would go the next day to work on a piece of carpet and be looking frantically for said knives and wondering how the screw got loose on his tool?

I would draw pictures and make my very own Christmas cards with money in them. I would find the loose change in dad's blazers and suit coats after Sunday dinners. I never considered it stealing and when I had taped the pennies and nickels in the card Dad would inquire where I got the money. I didn't want to get in trouble so I would say I found it laying on the ground.

For many years I would pick up pennies and throw them into a coffee can. Years later I had thousands of pennies but unfortunately I had moved in with a crooked roommate that stole my coffee can of pennies when they walked out the door one day! So I have no idea just how much I had saved up over the years. I just remember the can was almost full and it was very heavy!

Finally Christmas Eve had come and I was having trouble falling asleep. It was a blizzard outside and I told my parents that I hoped that Rudolph could still drive in the bad weather. I worried that Santa might get hurt in the storm like a friend of ours had while driving their car. At the age of five I didn't realize that Santa had his own speedway up in the air!

It was late at night and I heard a loud thumping overhead and it had woken me up. I laid there in my bed looking at the ceiling of my bedroom wondering if Santa would be too fat to get down our tiny chimney piece. We didn't have a fireplace and I was very upset about that. I had asked Grandpa to build one so that Santa could come in but he said it wasn't necessary. He said that Santa had magical powers and that he would find a way into the house in a safe manner and that I wasn't to worry about it.

I heard the clatter again then crash, bang, boom! I was terrified, maybe Rudolph had fallen off the roof. It was snowing rather madly outside and I peaked out my window through the slit in my curtain. I couldn't see a thing it was a white wall of snow out there. I thought poor Santa, what a rotten night to have to work. I knew that if it was really snowy, cold and blowing that Mom and Dad wouldn't go to work. How nice of Santa to still come when he really didn't have to but then again if I didn't get any gifts I would think less of him as a child.

The clattering had stopped and then I heard Santa walking down my stairs! I knew that creaky stair. I always got yelled at for trying to go down to the kitchen late at night to get some milk and sneak a cookie or two. I always wanted a midnight snack. Dad finally got smart and started feeding me a peanut butter and jam sandwich before bed with some milk or juice. Usually around nine or ten o'clock and then I was able to go to my room and try to settle down and sleep.

I had never been much of a sleeper. Usually I would sleep four to six hours a night and that was it. I had been taught to stay in my room and play or read a book in the mornings. At the age of three I once woke up at five am and I was ferociously hungry. So I grabbed the frying pan, threw some eggs in it and turned the stove on high. I added some bacon and was throughly enjoying cooking my own breakfast until the bacon splattered in my eye.

I ran crying to my parents room and they awoke to billows of black smoke in the kitchen. Needless to say at the age of three I was banned from cooking on the stove until I was around ten years old. I was allowed to make my own toast or play with my easy bake oven and only use what was allowed. No more eggs and bacon for me. For many years after I was actually afraid to cook bacon for I hated the grease spitting on me and burning my little arms.

That night I listened at the doorway and looked out. There was a ladder placed by the trap door to the attic. We must have a robber I thought! What if they stole our presents! So I sneaked a peek down the stairs. I saw the backside of a red suit and someone bending around the Christmas tree and putting gifts under it. I was filled with anticipation and excitement. I looked to see if my home made cookies were gone off my Santa plate and they were. I went back to my room and waited.

Santa must have come through the attic then! I guess he came through the chimney after all. I was happy that he would be nice and warm for awhile and that I had fed him my cookies and milk. I dozed off for a bit but then I heard this loud strange noise. It sounded like something rumbling and it kind of sounded like Grandpa at night. Grandpa usually snored very loudly and he would at times forget to shut his bedroom door. I would wake up and run down on my way to the kitchen and shut the door for him.

I walked out and carefully went down the stairs. The man in the red suit was sitting in Grandpa's lazy boy chair with his head resting on his chest. Loud snores were coming from him. All the gifts were under the tree but now I was worried that Santa wouldn't make it to the other children's homes because he was snoring in Grandpa's chair!

I went upstairs and into my parents room. I shook my mother awake and told her we had a serious problem downstairs. She woke up my father and told him to go down and deal with it. I followed closely behind. I told him Santa had fallen asleep and he was snoring in our living room. My father tried to control the silly grin on his face and he busted out laughing. I started to cry. I couldn't understand why he wasn't upset about Santa falling asleep then Santa woke up and looked up saying, "Humph oh!" I yelled, "Grandpa are you Santa?" He looked at my Dad then smiled and said, "No honey, I decided to help Santa out tonight. I got the gifts out of the attic for him." I turned and looked at my parents and then started to cry. I realized there never had been a Santa and that I had been believing in something that wasn't real! I wondered who was answering my Dear Santa letters and figured it was someone who worked for the post office.

I never told my cousins or anyone else. I let them all believe in Santa Claus. But that night at the age of five I no longer believed in Santa until I was much older. I read the history of Kris Kringle and found out that Santa really did exist! He may not come to my home and pay for all the gifts but he taught us the importance of giving at this time of year. To show love to our friends and family and to spend time together celebrating being a part of each other's lives.

Some of us celebrate according to our religious beliefs whether it be the baby Jesus in the Manger, the Mother Mary, or the other beliefs that circulate in this lovely world of ours. The main thing is that we take time out of our daily, busy schedule and make time with our loved ones. So that we may build wonderful memories and live with our traditions of a fine meal and exchanging of gifts!