all I want.
The best gift I’ve given is an “Anti-Boredom Box” to a friend who was bedridden for a few weeks following surgery. It had paper, cray- ons, scissors, markers, tape, stick- ers, yarn. She loved it, used it and refilled it, and passed it on to some-
one else in a similar situation. Michelle Guillory
Faith Lutheran Church, Junction City, Ore.
A dollar in the slush It was Christmas Eve day in the mid- 1930s, the Great Depression years. Many were reduced to day labor jobs when they could be found. Dad had cut a little tree from the area’s plentiful timber. Mom and I had trimmed it with homemade decora- tions—there were no lights but it was a beautiful tree. My little brown stocking hung nearby, and in it I would probably find a few peanuts in the shell, an apple or orange and a stick of candy.
Dad had been out all day search- ing for some kind of job or there would be no gift from Santa under the tree. He was unable to find work and was headed for home when his boot came down on a lump that he
almost kicked aside. It was a dollar bill, which he rushed home to show to Mom. She cleaned it off and said, “Hurry up to the hardware store before it closes and get that pair of skates.”
The next morning I clamped them to my brown oxfords, securing them with the skate key Dad had put on one of his leather shoestrings. I still remember skating around the house on the linoleum. It was in adulthood when I finally heard the whole story of the skates. That dollar could have bought a hat, gloves, scarf or food. But it was sac- rificed for a Christmas gift for one so loved—me. And wasn’t that what the first Christmas gift was—sacrifi- cial love?
skates.
My daughter, Sally, still has those Sara Downs
Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd, Des Moines, Iowa
Raising a gift-giver From the time my daughter was young, she was most generous. It began small—fistfuls of grass and wilted dandelions—and grew to grand gifts that exceeded any moth- er’s expectations. Her smiles and hugs were her best gifts, but not her most surprising.
Sara Downs, Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd, Des Moines, Iowa, with the Christmas skates she has passed down to her daughter as a keepsake.
24 The Lutheran •
www.thelutheran.org
At age 3, Colette made her first trek to the dollar store with her grand- father, and the world was her oyster. For Christmas that year I received a beautiful set of pastel-colored balls that, when frozen, could be added to drinks (instead of ice). There were gifts for all sorts of occasions—drinking glasses (for- merly bud vases), a unicorn with a “solid gold” horn, handmade jew- elry, a bread dough plaque, music boxes and two favorites: a slot machine and a pair of silver goblets on a fine silver tray.
She spied the slot machine at
DESIGN PICS
Sears—a one-armed bandit with cherries that you fed quarters. Bells rang and it lit up for the big payoff. The perfect gift for mommies and little girls living on the edge. And the goblets looked like something Sleeping Beauty might have drunk from. For years, sparkling grape juice never tasted so good. Now an adult, Colette continues to give gifts that are thoughtful, sur-
prising and filled with love. Sharon Boudreaux
Grace Lutheran Church, Oak Ridge, Tenn.
A necklace & place in the family I was a young bride in 1968, antici- pating the celebration of the first Christmas with my husband’s large family. As a shy new bride, I felt a bit lost in the crowd.
On Christmas Eve, they attended
midnight worship. I can still close my eyes and experience the scents and sights of the church that first Christmas Eve of our
marriage. It was like being in a Nor- man Rockwell painting.
After worship, we drove to my
in-law’s home to open gifts. Unlike my small family where everyone watched one person at a time open a gift, his family simply dived in! I was a bit bewildered by it all. Then my mother-in-law handed me a small gift. The room grew quiet and my husband drew nearer as the faces of those around me held expressions of expectation. I
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