The Soundtrack of My Life

"Wonderful Christmas Time"

January 2008

Ever since our parents got divorced, Irene and I went through three Christmases a year. On Christmas Day this past year, we had gone to both Mom's and our grandparents' to open multiple gifts. It took us all day to get through the gifts; we even had an intermission at our grandparents' house where our grandma brought out leftovers from Christmas Eve dinner the night before. From sunup to almost sundown, we opened those gifts, and then went to a movie to celebrate. 

Today was New Year's Day, but it was also Christmas day at Dad's house. Irene and I had come downstairs from our lofted bedroom to wake up Dad. He sat up in his bed and stretched. 

"Merry Christmas, Daddy." Irene said as she gave him a quick peck on the cheek. 

"Merry Christmas, Dad." I added as I hugged him. 

He smiled at us. "Merry Christmas, girls." 

Irene and I left his room, and went to the kitchen. Dad's only rule about Christmas was that he had to have a cup of coffee as we opened gifts. Dad had an espresso machine, so making coffee for him was easy. Irene grabbed him his favorite blue mug and placed it on the tray, and I pushed the button that had a picture of two cups on it. 

We left the machine to do its work and sat down eagerly in the living room. Dad came out of his room, a baggy pair of sweatpants hung from his hips and his extra large South Carolina sweatshirt hang loosely from his neck. He shuffled to the kitchen, picked up his mug of coffee once it was finished and said, "Ahhhh."

"Why don't you girls put on some Christmas music?" Dad called from the kitchen. We heard him slurping his caffeinated addiction. 

"Okay!" Irene said happily. She turned on the record player and set the needle on the vinyl. The familiar static sound filled our ears and gave way to some joyful Christmas music. Irene sat back down next to me and smiled. Christmas was her favorite holiday. 

Dad came into the living room and sat down in one of his leather chairs with an ottoman. He looked sad. "Christmas is a little small this year."

I looked at the tree. There were only four presents and two envelopes. One of the presents was from us to Dad; a gift we had made, just like we did every year. The other three were for us to share; two medium sized boxes, and one large. Each envelope had our names separately written on them and sat in the branches of the tree. 

"Here, Dad," I said as I picked up the small box addressed to him. "Here's our gift to you."

He opened it and revealed a wooden picture frame we had painted just for him. Inside the frame was a picture of us, smiling. Dad smiled and stood up to put his new frame on display. "I love it."

"What gift should we open first?" Irene asked. 

"How about this one?" I replied holding up one of the medium boxes. 

Dad took a sip of his coffee. "Go ahead."

"You can open this one, Irene," I said as I handed her the present. "I'll open the next medium one."

"Okay!" she replied as she tore open the wrapping paper as fast as she could. Underneath the green wrapping paper was the game Trouble. "Oh, wow! Another game for us to play!"

"We can play that later today if you want," added Dad. 

"Okay, I'll open this one!" I said. I started ripping open the present. As I tore the wrapping paper, I revealed a new 1,500 piece puzzle. The three of us loved to do puzzles together. It was one of our favorite things. Nothing was better than listening to music and singing along as you put together a picture that was in a bunch of pieces. "Yes!"