Every time I see the Christmas picture of my baby brother
and myself, I remember that Christmas morning as though it were yesterday. There we are in our worn-out t-shirts and grinning. My baby brother Glenn he is seven and I am
fifteen. We are holding our Christmas
presents. Mom had told us that we would
not be getting very much that year. I am
holding a little wooden box that contains a red corncob. The outside reads, “Emergency toilet
paper.” I lost that present in the house
fire. I had it in a hope chest in the
attic. Mom had promised me a car that
year. I was holding it too. It was a tiny matchbox car.
Momma got a big kick out of the gifts. I know you might be thinking that was her gag
gift, but that was really my Christmas present that year. I told momma that she did not have to get me
a present but make sure my brothers and sisters got something under the
tree. I knew that it was only a
temporary setback in the Hopper family because some years momma was able to get
us some nice gifts.
I remember staying up late one Christmas waiting on Old
Saint Nick to come. I know that momma
and daddy must have wondered if we would ever go to sleep. When we did, it seemed as only a moment when
we went running into the living room to find Huffy bicycles under the tree.
About the time I was getting the corncob is about the time I
realized that momma would go deep into debt to buy Christmas and spend (no pun
intended) the next 365 days paying for that magical morning. I knew that we did not have the money to buy presents. We had what money cannot buy and that was
love for each other.
Momma accused daddy of being Scrooge. I realized later that he was not a Scrooge
but was actually a Bob Cratchic. Bob was
the one that worked for Scrooge in the movie, A Christmas Carol. Right now,
I am playing the Ghost of Christmas past as I write. I used to warn my kids every year that I
think I feel a Scrooge moment about to come upon me when we go Christmas
shopping.
I remember momma crying at Christmas from time to time. She wanted so much to have a nice home filled
with Christmas decorations. My wife Lisa
has a theme-oriented Christmas tree in every room. For mom, we had to find her a cedar tree that
looked like a Christmas tree. She would
decorate it with balls, ribbons, silver icicles, strings of popcorn, and other
junk as dad would say.
Momma and my sister kept the house so hot with the one gas
space heater that daddy, my brothers, and I stayed outside most of the
time. When momma started decorating the
house, we all stayed outside even more.
That is a tradition that I carry on today. When Lisa starts decorating the house I go outside
and stay. My job during Thanksgiving season
is to retrieve all the Christmas junk and place it in the specific place I am instructed
to stack it.
I fetch hammers, nails, wire, and other paraphernalia, but
quickly exit the house when fulfilling my Christmas obligations. I could care less about a tree. I have an official “Charlie Brown tree” in my
office.
I had a brilliant moment of inspiration idea several years
ago. My office chair collapsed while I
was leaning sideways. The office chair
was rated for a two hundred fifty pound man.
Since I weigh more than that, I had stressed the designer’s recommended specifications,
which resulted in an office chair failure.
I tried on several occasions to repair the chair, but the aluminum alloy
frame holding the shattered like a broken eggshell. The seat and the wheels were good.
Led by Pam’s (former secretary), stroke of genius of wanting
a Christmas tree on wheels, I mounted the office chair wheels to the bottom of a
Christmas tree. To say the least, when I
proudly presented my latest invention, but Christmas Tree Purist were not
impressed. Most said it made the tree
too high. There were some references to
my rigging, but I won’t go there. Well,
it wasn’t too high. The base of the five
wheeled office chair allowed the tree to stand lower than the tree stand.
Ignoring the critics, I rolled it into the living room. When my oldest son the interior designer arrived
on Thanksgiving eve, I showed him my invention.
He said that when he decorates for businesses and large corporations for
Christmas that their large Christmas trees are mounted on wheels to make
decorating easier. With Andy’s seal of
approval, all was well. There is peace
on Earth that Christmas, I mean in the Hopper household. I wondered if I should get a patent. I know that it won’t be long until another
office chair failure.
And suddenly there was
with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory
to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. And it came to pass, as the angels were gone
away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go
even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord
hath made known unto us. And they came
with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger Luke
2:13-16 KJV
May the Peace of God be with you and your household.
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