My Mom Forgot Something Every Year on Christmas Eve

It was Christmas Eve and it was lightly snowing, as all eight of us got in the gray two-door 1950 Chevy model 1552 to go to church—five children on the back seat.  Mom had just closed her door, when she remembered that she forgot to do something and had to go back inside.  Okay.  All set.  The church was full, with people standing in the back.  Two giant trees, standing left and right of the altar, were beautifully decorated.  Each had a hundred fully-packed brown paper bags underneath its branches.  Adult and children’s choir, with Mr Raedeke playing the organ.  “Away in a Manger”, “Hark the Herald Angels Sing”, “Silent Night, Holy Night”, “Ihr Kinderlein Kommet”, “Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht”, “O Tannenbaum”,  At the end of the service, all children who could walk were invited to come forward to collect their brown paper bag full of treats—smallest first.  It was so cute to see the little ones proudly returning to their parents with their heavy present that they could barely carry.  It contained mostly peanuts in their shells, an apple and an orange, and some candy.  Every child got a gift on Christmas.  After a wonderful service at St John’s we headed home with great expectation.  Before we left for church, there were no presents under our handsomely-decorated tree, so we didn’t know if we were going to get anything more than peanuts this year.  As soon as Dad stopped the car in the driveway, we rushed inside.  Yay!  He was here!  He was here!  Santa Claus had once again magically brought us gifts.  As I look back, I think my Mom forgot something every year on Christmas Eve, but we fell for it every time. old pics (24)