A Christmas Story Part 3

It can't be Friday already! It just can't be! Our Open House is tonight?! Somehow I lost a day this week so I keep thinking it is Thursday. Tomorrow must be Friday. And whatever the day, Christmas CANNOT be next week! That is just impossible! Does anyone one else feel that way? I am certain that it was Christmas only a few months ago. If it is almost Christmas, that means that the year 2009 is almost over! Good grief, what a thought.

As you may have noticed, I don't have my book ready for all my test readers. Mom has been busy helping J with Light of Faith things and hasn't had much time to work on it. Hopefully she can get it done in January. At least I got my part done. At least what I could do now.:)

I should add that next Friday is Christmas, but I will still be posting. That is because we will be having our Christmas on Christmas Eve morning after which we will drive to KC to my Grandparents' house. So, on Christmas Day, while Grandma & Grandpa are at my aunts' we will have a nice quiet morning. That means I can post. And since it will be Christmas, what better thing to post that day then my new Christmas Story. I just finished the last corrections last night. Mom said it must have been good because she cried. And that is all I will tell you about it.

This is the last part of "A Christmas Story" so enjoy it. And by the way, don't forget to check out Andrah's blog and leave a comment on her giveaway.

A Christmas Story Part 3

Jack looked at Jon. And after a pause, Jon spoke, “We aren’t having a Christmas this year.”
“Not having Christmas!” I echoed in unbelief. “Why not?”
“Well, because Dad got hurt last month and can’t work, and Mom can’t work because she is going to have a baby, and Dad says we won’t take charity from the government! We just won’t have Christmas, just like we don’t have heat in the house, and we won’t have a big meal tomorrow either.”
I stared in astonishment. Never in my life had I known someone in that situation. “You don’t have heat?”
“Well,” Jon corrected himself. “We do have some small heaters, so it isn’t freezing, but the furnace can’t be turned on because something is wrong with it, and it might blow up or something if it gets turned on before it gets fixed. But that is okay. We don’t freeze. And,” Jon added hastily as though to change the subject, “Mom said to tell you thank you for getting us that tree. She almost cried when we brought it in. So we will have some Christmas. We just will skip the gifts. I don’t mind.” And Jon straightened his shoulders manfully.
“I don’t mind either,” Jack said, standing tall beside his brother.
I didn’t have time to say anything even if I had known what to say, for Dad’s whistle was heard then breaking the stillness.
“Merry Christmas,” I called back over my shoulder as Sir Prince and I headed up the hill towards home and supper.

As we sat eating a little while later, I didn’t hear the conversations going on around me. All I could think of was Jon and Jack and their sisters and no Christmas gifts, none at all. What would that be like. No money for heat. No money for gifts, not even the smallest. No money for a big dinner. Did they have money for much food at all? Perhaps it was because of not having heat that I was never asked in. That must have been why Jon and Jack were so anxious to earn money by shoveling the snow.
“Rich,” Dad’s voice broke into my thoughts, but only enough to turn them into a new direction. Rich! I was rich, I had plenty of food, more than enough actually. A warm house with no worry about the furnace blowing up. Christmas presents. I knew there would be many of them. I even had extra spending money.
“Richard!”
I jumped. Everyone was looking at me. “Sir?” I asked looking at Dad.
“You have hardly touched your food, and you haven’t answered a single question asked you tonight. Are you feeling all right?”
“Oh, I’m sorry. Yes sir, I mean no sir, I mean I’m fine, but Dad, isn’t there something we can do?”
“What are you talking about, Rich?”
I told them all I had just heard from Jon and Jack about them not having a Christmas. Everyone listened in silence. And even after I had finished no one spoke. It wasn’t until Mom and Maggie and Tillie were cleaning up the kitchen, and Dad sat in the living room with the twins on his lap, that I came in with my idea.
“Dad,” I spoke a little hesitatingly at first, “can I give my presents to Jon and Jack?”
Dad looked at me. “All of them?”
I nodded.
“You don’t even know what they are, do you?”
I shook my head.
Dad was quiet. “Son,” he said at last, “Why do you want to do this?”
I sat down before the fireplace and looked into the flames. It was rather hard for me to put it all into words. But I knew I had to try. I had to make Dad understand. “I was thinking about the song “What Can I Give Him,” and I already gave Him my heart, and when I heard about Jon and Jack, the verse we memorized earlier this year came to my mind. The one about doing things for others is doing things for Christ. And, well, I already have so much, food, heat, toys, a dog.” Sir Prince had come over and lain down beside me with his head resting on his front paws. “I really don’t need anything else,” my voice trailed off, and I turned to look at Dad.
“Do you want them to know you gave up your gifts for them?”
“No.”
Nothing else was said. Mom and the girls came in then, and with only the light from the Christmas tree and the fire, Dad opened the Bible and began to read the very first Christmas story, beginning, “Now it came to pass in the days of Herod the king that all the world went to be taxed.”
I sat and listened. Somehow it seemed more real to me that Christmas than it ever had before. When Dad finished reading, he told the others what I wanted to do and asked if anyone else wanted to do the same thing. Maggie did, and so did Tillie, probably because Tillie always wanted to do what Maggie did. The twins of course didn’t know. Mom said she would give some things too, and then Dad asked if we were all willing to give up our big turkey dinner with all the fixings. I looked at the girls, and they looked at me. As one, we said, “Yes.” It was decided that if we had made something for someone else, that would be kept, but anything else would go.
We all hurried around. Dad got a few boxes and paper bags. Mom got the food ready. Dad helped us all pack the gifts. There were no labels on the gifts yet, so as Dad told us what was in each gift, we wrote who it was for. We didn’t put who it was from. At last everything was ready. Mom and Kelly and Kaylee stayed home, but the rest of us, each loaded with a box or bag, and well bundled up, started out into the cold snowy Christmas Eve night. Tillie kept giggling, and I was afraid someone would hear us. Quietly we approached the Lee house. We could see the lighted Christmas tree shining in the window. With great caution we set the things down before the door. Dad had said I could ring the bell after he and the girls were out of sight.
Giving the doorbell a quick push, I jumped off the porch and raced for the bushes where I could hide and watch. The door opened and Mrs. Lee looked out. She seemed about to close the door when she noticed the bags and boxes. With a cry she turned to someone inside. I didn’t wait to see more, but quietly slipped away home.

That night as I lay in my warm bed I didn’t feel sad about giving up those gifts and not having many to open in the morning. Instead I had a warm feeling of doing what was needed. I looked out the window and saw a bright star shining through a break in the clouds. I hadn’t done this for me, or even for Jon and Jack, I had done it for Christ who had given His all for me.
I’m sure there wasn’t a happier boy that Christmas Eve night than I was, for I had found out the true meaning of Christmas.

The End