“ENDING CHRISTMAS ON A GOOD NOTE”
CHRISTMAS EVE MEDITATION
When
I was growing up that was something we always had to do after we opened our Christmas presents. Before we went back to school, my sister, brother and I had to sit down and write thank you notes to everyone
who sent us a gift. We had to write with a pen and we had to use our best handwriting.
Cross outs and scribbles weren’t allowed. I can still hear my mother’s voice admonishing us to write those
thank you notes. She would always say something like this: “After all the
trouble they went through to send you those presents the least you can do is write and thank them.”
Times
have changed of course. For one thing gift giving isn’t what it used to be. These
days you can sit down at your computer and click click click your way to a holly, jolly Christmas. Some of those online retailers will even send you the gifts all wrapped and ready to go. That’s a far cry from the traumatic gift giving experience that a father had many years ago. The experience was so traumatic that his wife wrote a poem about it. She used the familiar “Twas the Night Before Christmas.” Half-way through the poem she wrote,
“Soon down in the den there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from my task to see what was the matter.
Away to my husband I flew like a flash;
He was shuffling through cardboard; his actions were rash.
The bike on the rug by this now-flustered dad
Soon gave me a hint as to why he was mad.
He needed a kickstand. It had to be near.
I shuffled some papers – he saw it appear!
We twisted the screws; we were lively and quick,
But we knew that assembly would be quite a trick.
Fast as eagles in flight the pieces were found,
And he whistled and shouted for parts all around:
‘Now socket! Now pedal! Now tires! Now brakes!
On handles! On kickstand! On horn!…oh…but wait!’
In the top of the toolbox, he fumbled around;
‘I need two more screws!’ he said with a frown.
And like all good parents who are determined to please
When met with an obstacle late Christmas Eve,
We shouted and yelled some complaints to each other.
A totally frustrated father and mother!”
……..
Then wheeling the bike by the tree (out of site),
My hubby announced we should call it a night.
He sprang to his bed, to the clock gave a whistle,
As the time had flown by like a large Titan missile.
But I heard him exclaim as he turned out the light,
‘Merry Christmas, my darling, but next year NO BIKE!’”
