a charly brown christmas...

it was christmas eve 1968, and there was NO christmas tree at the 'winters'' home in tempe, az. that year, grandpa and grandma dodge, my uncle mike and aunt arvilla and their baby, shantele had come from utah to spend christmas with us. mike couldn't believe that it was christmas eve, we had six young kids and NO tree. so he grabbed dad and off they went to hunt for a tree. after a few hours of hunting, they found one that they had to pay a whoppin' $2.00 for. needless to say... it was a charly brown christmas tree. but never the less, it was a christmas tree and we were all excited about it (it was alot better than NO christmas tree at all!). as we strung the lights and hung the ornaments, the doorbell rang. there was no one at the door, but there on our front porch, was a huge box, full of all the trimmings for a wonderful christmas dinner (along with a few other things). did i say... that things were a little tight at our house that year, (and we all knew it!) ?

christmas morning we woke up, not really expecting anything to be under the tree from 'santa', but to our surprize... we each got a pair of home made p.j.'s (the best there is!) and we each received one other thing. for me ~ a blue alarm clock radio! it was rockin'! my younger brother steve, got a statue of a horse that was about 12" high. he was so thrilled with it, that he just knelt down by it and cried. (he had been eye balling it down at the corner drug store for the past few months). i remember feeling sooo grateful that we hadn't been forgotten that year. i don't remember anything that anyone else got that year, but the best gift of all was having grandpa and grandma there with us.

i can look back all those years ago, and appreciate more the 'secret santa' that delivered a special box that christmas eve, to a family in need.

merry christmas charly brown !!