My Best Christmas Ever

The best Christmas that I ever had took place many, many years ago when I lived in Wichita Falls, Texas. It did not seem that it would be that great, however, starting right before Thanksgiving. Let me first set the stage ....

I managed a jean store in the mall at the time. Yeah, the money was not bad but still not quite enough considering that I was raising two small children by myself. (They were ages 5 and 4 at the time.) My best friend from when I was growing up had moved from Tennessee to Texas and was working for me at the jean store. The four of us lived in a small one-bedroom garage apartment. The kids had the bedroom, I slept on the couch, and there was a pull-out mattress for my friend. We were a bit crowded but happy. We also had fantastic landlords, who were more like family. They had two children, a daughter age 16 and a son age 15. One night, not long before Thanksgiving, the son committed suicide. My roommate walked in on the scene, and I found myself having to explain death for the first time to my children while mourning the loss of a young man who was like a brother to me. It was not a good time.

My friend and I had both been talking about finding a new and larger place; however, we both agreed that we could not desert our landlords and their daughter during the holidays. As Christmas approached, the finances -- as always seems to be the case at this time of year -- were dire. However, we were able to afford a tree. (They were much cheaper back then.) The guy at the lot could not believe that two women could walk up to the first tree and say "That one!" Then it wouldn't fit on my car, so he was kind enough to deliver it to us on his truck. We also bought a very small tree for the guy that I was dating at the time. The Christmas tree lot guy couldn't believe that we were getting a huge tree for a one-bedroom apartment and a little, tiny tree for a two-bedroom house.

Turned out we didn't have enough ornaments for the tree or money to buy any, so we spent an evening with the kids stringing popcorn and cranberries and helping the kids to make construction paper ornaments. My landlords also asked if they could "borrow" my kids to help decorate their tree. You see, it turned out that it was a tradition for their kids to decorate the tree while the parents looked on. Their daughter just could not do it by herself. I think having my little ones there helped them all get through a very difficult time.

Moving along .... It also turned out that we didn't have much money for gifts. We had drawn names at work, but that just didn't work out. You see, there were six of us working there, all like family. So, some of us went in together to get another just what they had always wanted. It all got rather confusing but was quite fun. Each person got a very special gift that year. For instance, my friend got a leather and suede backgammon board. I got an 8-track tape player -- remember those? -- for my car. In addition, I invited all of my employees over for a Christmas party. They each brought a little something for each of my kids. The guys had my son outside throwing a Nerf football at eleven o'clock at night. We also had everyone stick the bows and ribbons from their presents on the tree. (It was still woefully under-decorated, but the bows really helped a lot.)

We had to work on Christmas Eve but closed early. My friend and I took the kids to see the Burns-Midwestern Lights at the university. Neat! Got home and were beat. My landlords had family visiting from New Orleans. The New Orleans relatives made us a dinner of salad, Cajun shrimp, and more. They said that they just knew that we wouldn't feel like cooking. They were right, and it was great!

On Christmas morning, I found that my friend had gotten one of my socks, stuffed it full of English walnuts -- my fav -- and hung it up. She couldn't really afford anything for stocking stuffings, but those English walnuts were the best!

None of us had much money that Christmas, but we were wealthy beyond compare.

Merry Christmas!