By Pat O’Connor
The Man in the Brown Truck
Back in 1987, we spent Christmas in Athens, Georgia, which is a wonderful place to live. Unfortunately for us though, all our family members lived in Ohio. We had four children by now and the youngest was 11 months old. We just didn’t feel we would make the trip back to Ohio that year. So, all our family and friends shipped presents to us. For about three to four days leading up to Christmas, the UPS truck stopped at our house…sometimes twice a day!
Despite feeling a bit lonely for home, we had a very nice Christmas, though it was a good bit quieter than usual. Everyone received lots of great gifts, and phone calls had to substitute for Ohio family time.
A few days after Christmas, a neighbor asked our son Sean, who was about 2 at the time, if Santa had brought him lots of presents.
“No, Santa didn’t bring me anything,” he said. Somewhat stunned, the neighbor asked “Really? Santa didn’t bring you anything?” Sean said, “No, the man in the brown truck brought everything.”
As much as we loved Athens and UGA, that’s when we started thinking seriously of returning to Ohio.
2 Trees 4 Christmas
For lots of families, Christmas is a very special holiday season. Among the many traditions and festivities, one of our favorite family events was to go together to snag our Christmas tree. Our approach was to go to the local Christmas tree farm, hunt one down, cut it, transport it home and decorate it… all in one afternoon. We also would put a big pot of some kind of soup to simmer, so when we finished with the tree, we would have dinner. And, as you might expect, we also had some fresh bread cooking to join the soup. Keep in mind, mid-December in Ohio was usually always cold and snowy. This made the whole event extra special.
Christmas in 2006 would be different in several ways. First, Sue and I were now empty nesters. Our children had all moved to chart their own courses to faraway places such as Florida, California, Colorado and New York. And this would be the first time they were all coming home for Christmas. The holiday song, “I’ll be Home for Christmas” kept running through my mind.
Sue and I decided to still do our traditional Christmas tree hunt, but as you can imagine, an event like that is way more special when you have kids along. We wanted to have the tree done because the kids were arriving on the 23rd and we thought it would just be too much to wait that late to do the tree. They were disappointed, but they understood.
One decorating activity we decided to save for them was them adding their own Christmas ornaments to the tree. Each year for each child, Sue would select a special ornament for them. Over the years, they had collected a set of their own ornaments. They really enjoyed placing them on the tree each year, as it reminded them of the Christmas they had received it.
We set up the tree and went about the remainder of our holiday plans and activities. However, we noticed after a few days that the needles were looking a bit yellow for some reason. We had been getting our trees from the same place for years and they were always top-notch. As the next day or two went along, more and more of the needles were yellowing and some started to fall off. At this point, I was hoping the tree would still be in one piece for Christmas Day.
By the time the kids got home on the 23rd, the tree was looking really anemic. I felt bad because the kids were looking forward to seeing the tree, as always. They were obviously disappointed when they saw it. I gave some lame excuse and said I hoped it would make it to Christmas.
The next day, Christmas Eve, the poor tree was done … adios … needles and branches, bulbs and lights falling off regularly. So, having no idea why this tree was now barren and wanting a nice tree as we always had (especially this year) we decided to just go get another tree and decorate it. I called our friends that ran the tree farm and told them of the tree situation, and they told us to hurry on over for a replacement. They also mentioned it was very rare for a tree to go bad like this one.
We were all thrilled that we were going to get another tree, so off we went and repeated our usual routine of getting and setting up the Christmas tree. Everyone really had a great time and I think the laughter was louder and the smiles that year were just a bit wider than usual. And seeing each of our kids placing all their ornaments on the new tree was really special.
Each Christmas is special but this one had an unusual twist. It was the only time it ever happened… We had two trees for Christmas.
Image courtesy rawpixel.com
pat o'connor
As an “epilogue” to my Christmas stories I add. Our children are “growed and gone” as I say with families of their own. They also continue this tradition with their families. Sue still buys an ornament for each grandchild. They are going to have a really full set of holiday ornaments to enjoy as they get older. And, all those wonderful memories of when they received them will stay with them. And, they stay with us as well.