Three Cans of Soup by Don Childers

Author:Don Childers [Childers, Don]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General Fiction
Publisher: Price World Publishing, LLC
Published: 2012-11-13T16:00:00+00:00

-25-

Bill could never figure out why Christmas was always important to him, but it was. Growing up, Christmastime provided some of the best memories. His whole family would go across Eugene to his uncle’s home for Christmas Eve. His uncle “Red”, named for his flaming red hair, and aunt had a larger home and often hosted family gatherings.

The family custom was to gather at his uncle’s home on Christmas Eve for an Italian feast. Although there were no direct ties to Italy, the family did have some indirect ties; besides, they all loved Italian food. Bill’s uncle “Red” had been a pastor in the 1940’s. Perhaps it was his uncle’s passion that had sparked the interest in ministry within Bill. Even though his uncle had left the ministry only after a few years so he could support his family, his uncle never had lost his passion for the church.

So on Christmas Eve the family would gather and sing carols and the children would dress up in bathrobes and act out the Christmas story, complete with a reluctant dog named Ling who was forced to be the one and only sheep. On the way home, late at night, Bill’s father Milt would always suddenly slow down the car.

“I don’t believe it!” he would exclaim looking out the window of the old Plymouth his gaze turned toward the dark night.

“What is it?” Bill’s mother would exclaim, usually awakening Bill’s sisters.

“Do you see that, over there, in the sky,” Bill’s father would say.

His mother Joyce would look and then exclaim, “Oh, Honey, I see it, that red dot moving across the sky.”

Bill and his sisters would be straining to see.

Milt would then say, “I think its Santa. I don’t think he has gotten to our house yet!”

“Well, honey,” his mother would say, “step on it. We need to get home and get these kids asleep so he doesn’t miss us.” For some reason Bill never had trouble going to sleep even after he had discovered the secret of Santa.

Then on Christmas Day, they would all awaken to find the cookies and milk left for Santa gone, eaten by the mysterious visitor. New presents would have appeared around the Christmas tree. After the ritual of tearing open the gifts, Milt and Joyce would set about preparing the turkey and dressing.

During college the family tradition continued even though his Grandmother Thompson died during his third year of college. They had grown too old for the “Look at that red light in the sky” trick, but Bill cherished and looked forward to the family gathering every year.

Thus when Bill got news that the family had all gone together to get him an airline ticket to return home for Christmas, he was overjoyed. Paul and Lynn had invited him to go with them back to Lynn’s folks in Montana rather than be alone. David and his new girlfriend Cheryl had also invited him to her home in Dallas for Christmas. Chris and his girlfriend had extended him an invitation but Bill would have rather eaten another of Mabel’s cakes than accept that one.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.