Another Christmas Story

This is the Christmas 1984, nothing too unusual with this picture of Melani opening Christmas presents but you might notice several brown bags

This is the angel child Stephen who for the entire Christmas season stayed away from the tree and didn't touch anything, until....

I have never liked our traditoin of opening a gift on Christmas Eve but it was important to Dad and of course you kids loved it so we did it. This Christmas we opened our gifts put you all to bed and left to go the few blocks to Uncle Joe and Aunt Lilian's to help them set a basketball standard for Sam. Whe we got home we were horrified to see the house in complete shambles, everything was torn apart. We were terrified that someone had come into our home and had harmed our children. We ran down the stairs dreading what we would find. Everything was quiet and serene, particularly the face of two year old Stephen who lay asleep with a brand new truck on his chest.

It was apparent what had happened. The little boy who had showed such restraint throughout the entire time leading up to that Christmas Eve present opening, was exposed to temptation beyond his ability to resist. Once that first present was opened there was no stopping him. Every gift under the tree was opened. We were grateful Santa hadn't visited our home yet.

We had very little wrapping paper left so we called family mambers to see what was available at their houses. Aunt Sylvia had some E.T. paper left (that was the movie to see that year), and the rest of the gifts were rewrapped in grocery bags. Some of the gifts we had no idea who they were for so they were opened randomly on Christmas morning and once the content was revealed the giver could say who it was for. It was a memorable Christmas, we all laughed and joked about it for a long time. The thing that still sticks in my mind and heart was how grateful we were than nothing had happened to our children, what relief we felt that they were safe, and realized again what a precious gift they were to us.