You are familiar with the song “Jingle Bells.” Well I happened to have a similar incident in my own life. Back when I first started writing I was thirteen. My father’s health was dangerously poor and it led to him losing his job and our family losing our home. We moved out of Toronto down to my grandmother’s cottage on the north shore of Lake Erie; still in Canada. The home was not heated so we huddled around the fireplace in that particularly cold winter and chopped wood in all-weather after school. The cottage was across the street from my father’s boyhood farm (long since sold off after Grandpa’s passing years before.) We were getting by with government and church help. Christmas did not promise to be anything special and so my expectations were low. We exchanged gifts we already owned and figured Christmas was done. Remember this is the rural community where my father grew up. There came a knock on the door. An old family friend was there who had been friends with my father’s family for generations. Halloween consisted of going to just his house and eating treats and hot cocoa all night. It took too long to walk to many farms. His name was Mt. Larimee. Aside from farming, he raised prize winning ponies of a rare Belgian breed of great size. He had one hooked up out front to a sleigh and wanted to take us for a sleigh ride. Who could say no? We went all through the neighborhood and around the farms under a blanket in the sleigh. He even had the bells on the horse as he trotted through the foot deep snow. I was thrilled and didn’t care about the cold wind on my face. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity. It was as though the Grinch had stolen our Christmas and it was brought back to us. We had no presents or ham or candy but we had the best Christmas ever. And it was all because a kind, old family friend whom we rarely saw, came out of the blue with his jiggle bells. This year, don’t regret what you do not have. Be thankful for what you do have. Merry Christmas.
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