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 wasn’t a shiny new one, though. We didn’t have much money, so "Santa" brought me a used one. By this time, I didn’t 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 didn’t 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 wasn’t born on Christmas, she is still my greatest gift.

© Ladyblue, 12/09/2001

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