Friday, December 26, 2008

Auld Lang Syne

In celebration of the new year, regale us with a short tale of "days gone by".

13 comments:

KariBryant said...

Just a little story that is true?

Mike said...

I leave the dynamics of the story to you

Delirious said...

You don't know how good you have it. Why, back in 2008, I didn't even own a cell phone! I had to actually stop my car and go to a telephone booth to call someone. I never texted, or anything like that. I would have to actually SPEAK to someone on the phone rather than text!

You think you have it bad? Back in 2008, we didn't own anything like a Wii! We had to find other ways to entertain ourselves. We didn't have the luxury of those new fangled electronic gadgets. Pfftt...you don't know suffering.

Tera Rose said...

Days gone by.

sitting on the floor, criss cross applesauce, she gazed into the blinking lights of the christmas tree...

bright lights of red, yellow, green and blue, blinking in tune to "we wish you a merry christmas" drew her into a hypnotic gaze....

she looked down at the presents under the tree. The giant life size barbie smiled back at her surreally. There was a hex truck, ready to go, parked next to boxes wrapped in pretty paper and ribbons. The was another truck filled with chocolate candies...

and she remembered, a different christmas eve; a christmas that seemed so long ago.

with a tree that barely had any lights at all and a scattering of ornaments which had been hand made from paper.

with a Tonka dump truck also filled with chocolate candies. christmas ball candies wrapped in tinfoil colors of red, white and green...

gifts under the tree from Santa waiting for a two year old to pitter patter down the stairs...

she had laid on the sofa that night, wanting to fall asleep but couldn't. The anticipation of the baby's expression with all the gifts she managed to get for him was keeping her awake.

She had begged, borrowed and stoled as the saying goes to get all the dreams she had for this little one.

A single parent working part time at college barely managing to get the bills paid, never really having enough for the bills, the food and the bus fare to get around.

But she did it!

She got him a small table and chair set, had her father buy him some music sing a long videos, signed up for donations with the local red cross toy drive.

and christmas was here.

feet came piddle paddle down the stairs.
"ma ma?" she heard him ask.

"here I am baby, ma ma is down here on the couch. Santa Claus came!'

she was surprised to learn that the two year old didn't really seem to know what that meant.

He just wanted to climb in her lap and watch the christmas lights on the tree.

She got up and gave him a present, "open this one, open it quick, see what Santa brought!"

The little toddler climbed out of her lap and pushed the present away. His eyes were drawn to the dump truck with bright shiny balls in the back.

He toddled over to the truck, sat down in his clumsey, new at walking kind of way; and played with the chocolate candies as if they were the greatest little bright balls that ever existed.

The bag had cost 99 cents.

He kept playing with his new balls as she went from anxiously wanting him to rip open all his gifts to resigning that well, christmas if for him, and if those 99cent bag of chocolate balls brought him joy; she would let him have joy.

She got up and started her household chores. After dinner that night, she tucked a blanket over him as he slept next to the tree on the floor, beside all the presents that hadn't been opened.

She reached down to kiss him goodnight, as he stirred, she saw a ball held tight in each hand; smushing chocolate all over his fingers. Only in his sleep had the chocolate found it's freedom from the wrappers.

19 years later she sat here looking at the new dump truck filled with candies for the new toddler. A different baby, a different father, a different time.

Now there was money, now there would be enough food; enough for the 20 guests that had just joined them for christmas eve dinner. Tomorrow there would be siblings shouting with joy in the morning and a daddy lovingly watching.

This year there was a tree decorated with plenty of lights, plenty of beautiful ornaments...and yet still some hand made paper ones remained.

Those are my favorite ones, she thought.

and she laughed to herself as she looked at the mountains of gifts for the children. She had again spent way too much money, and wondered at the lesson lost from the toddler before.

She had again, not been able to stop shopping after purchasing a simple bag of shiny balls, perhaps saving the money for a later day.

Now, after all these years, after all these children, she knew that even though it was the simplest gifts that touched the hearts of children....

it was her heart she was touching to be a generous Santa Claus..

giving because she knew now, 19 years later, that those precious simple pitter patter days really do vanish much too quickly like the old people had told her.

Before falling asleep on the couch again, like she had for 20 years on christmas eve; she looked at a handmade paper christmas ornament swinging above the new dump truck with tinfoil wrapped chocolate candies...and lovingly remembered days gone by...


Merry christmas everyone.

Tera Rose said...

umm, you may have said short...believe it or not, for me this is short...

so when you said, I leave the dynamics of the story to you?

well, I took full reign of that liberty :)

Tera Rose said...

how do we edit our comments?
it was a HESS truck, not hex truck :(

KariBryant said...

A friend reminded me recently of a summer when we went to BAND CAMP. We almost got kicked out because another friend of ours broke the window of the dorm we were staying in. She was trying to get the attention of some boys she thought were cute. Trying to be the good friends that we were...we covered for our other friend and told our camp counselors that someone threw a rock from the outside at our window and that was how it broke. Only thing was, obviously the window was cracked from the inside!!! Our counselor was warmed by our decision to cover for our friend, so she let the whole thing go. I'm not sure how...but we didn't get into trouble. And that was one of the only G rated memories of high school that I have...

Nene said...

I remember the one Christmas we went to my grandparents house. It was the Christmas I truly believed in Santa Claus - because I really did hear Santa's sleighbells as he drove away from my grandparents house! It couldn't have been my grandfather - because right after I heard the bells, here he came in from the bedroom to join us. He must have just been slower getting dressed than us...yes, that was it. :0} Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Tera Rose said...

ummm, are we done with this one yet?

Valorosa said...

It's one hour and 15 minutes to 2009 here in my town.
My very ill 27 year old son, my sister and I are home watching the festivities on and off on TV.
For 14 years we have been suffering from a disease that is ravaging my son slowly.
Right now he is in bed ... battling with a voice that makes fun of him. He is swearing loudly at times trying to argue the voice away.
This is his usual at night until the meds quiet his mind and he sleeps.

These are our days gone by ... 14 years of many a wild tale of a vibrant young man whose brain gave way on him and has taken his whole family for the ride of their life.

Celebrate? There will be no celebrating here tonight ... just a quiet passing into another year of hoping that God will free us all from this rotten whatever it is. Prayers for healing have gone unanswered. Mercy has been given in abundance.

I think I will watch the New York ball fall though ... that might be fun... I wonder if there is any cherry whiskey left?

Happy New Year friends from afar. ;-)

Mike said...

I will be reviewing this on the first and announcing the next contestant! :)

Tera Rose said...

Valorosa-

what does your son have?

I am so sorry to read this...hugs to you from afar.

Mike said...

Tera Rose gets this round for the beautiful Christmas story.

Valorosa is getting some prayers from me.