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Submitted by Susan, aka Jings: It wasn't a dark and stormy night but it may as well have been for my Dad. For days he had been in a depression of sorts and of course, as kids, you feel these things but never actually understand what the problem is 'til later in life. And now as I reflect back on that particular Christmas, it was probably one of the most memorable Christmasses I can remember. Money was almost non existant as there was a boycott going on against my Dad's business. And I won't go into that here except to say that ignorance ISN'T always bliss! That Christmas I was 16 and each of us 4 kids got to choose our own Christmas gift. We could choose anything we wanted as long as it was $5.00 or under, including tax. We each got one gift that Christmas but my Dad was so sad that he couldn't do as he had always done before, showering us with lots of things. I chose a powder blue, lighted make-up mirror. It was grand! It had 5 small lightbulbs. One in each corner of the mirror and the mirror could be turned to magnify it or a regular mirror side. And it was a stand-alone one also. Now I would be able to do my make-up without interruption or some one yelling to me in the bathroom "Hurry up in there!". That morning after we had opened our gifts and said our thank you's, I hugged my Dad and told him what a great Christmas this had been. My Dad answered gruffly back, that it had NOT been a good Christmas etc. After a few moments I told him, "Dad, the real meaning of Christmas is not the things we do at Christmas. It is in celebrating what we have, and that is Jesus. And it is about the Christmas things we do, all year through. We are altogther too." My Dad just looked at me and never said a thing. but I knew in my heart that he understood me. I don't know what happened to that mirror, but everytime I look into a lighted mirror I am reminded of that Christmas when what seemed to my dad the least of gifts opened eyes on the things that were important. |
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