MY GREATEST GIFT
Ladyblue, 12/09/2001
As I sit here by the roaring pinion fire, I reminisce about some of the gifts I have received during various Christmases. There was the year my younger sister and I (I was 5) sneaked downstairs in the middle of the night to see what Santa had brought. It was there the play table we had asked for. Everything else was wrapped, and I wondered how Santa had had enough time to wrap every present so beautifully. However, our stockings were still empty, but I was still naïve enough to believe that Santa would come back to fill them.
There was the year I received a bicycle. It wasnt a shiny new one, though. We didnt have much money, so "Santa" brought me a used one. By this time, I didnt believe in Santa anymore, so I knew my folks had found an ad in the paper for the second-hand bicycle. It was pea green. I thought to myself, "No self-respecting 10-year-old would be caught out in public riding a pea green bicycle!" I tried to look pleased while I blinked back the tears. My mother, a very perceptive woman, came over, put her arms around me and said, "Honey, it can be painted."
There was the year I received the camel-colored cashmere sweater set. The sweaters were so soft. All my friends had cashmere sweaters, so of course I had to have one, too. It didnt matter that there was no designer label in it. It was cashmere, so I was finally "one of the gang."
There was the year I received the turquoise-colored poodle skirt and the yellow sweater with a red heart and a knife sticking through it. Okay, so it was the 1950s and it was "fad time." I think I wore that sweater once, but I just HAD to have it!
There was the year I received roller skates the kind attached to white boots. I wore them out at the local skating rink. (Those were the days before television!).
As I look back, all of those were just "things." Not one of them exists today among my treasures. But one gift I still have, my greatest treasure my daughter Sara.
Although she wasnt born on Christmas, she is still my greatest gift.
© Ladyblue, 12/09/2001