A Christmas Story Date Friday, April 19, 2024 - 03:52 PM PST Topic Experiences You know those times when it seems as if everything is hopeless and nothing can happen to make it better? These are the times when you just have to smile and make the best of things as they come along. That's what our mother told me and my sister that Christmas. My mom was working nights at the Bulk Mail Center in a town a 30 minutes drive away. She worked nights and my sister and I were left alone a lot of the time. When she wasn't working, she was sleeping. We were pretty much feral by then, looking out for ourselves still. My mom was trying, though. She was at least holding down a job good enough that we had a decent place to live. I was 16, my sister had just turned 13. That year, she said there was no way she could do anything for Christmas, so we all decided to ignore the holiday altogether. I know she was bitterly disappointed about not being able to do anything for us for the holiday. She'd always been able to come up with something, no matter how bad things were. We told her it was okay, that we didn't need anything. We felt bad that she felt bad for us. Christmas eve, she had to work. My sister went to bed early, I went to my boyfriend's house. I was there pretty late. I came home at around 2 a.m. As I climbed the stairs to the apartment, I couldn't believe what I saw on the landing by our door. I had no idea how it got there. It was a perfect christmas tree. Just sitting there as if it were a gift to us. I woke up my sister and we brought it into the house. We propped it up and decorated it with scraps of paper, jewelry and other household items. We put a paper star on top. We sat in the living room, waiting for our mother to come home. Our mother came in, tired from work. She stood looking at the tree with tears in her eyes. I was never so proud of myself as I was in that moment. My sister and I had been able to give Christmas to her. It was a Merry Christmas, after all. Happy Holidays to everyone. This article comes from Shmeng http://www.shmeng.com/ The URL for this story is: http://www.shmeng.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=629