Christmas Eve Story
I woke up in my room. Luke was already awake and sitting in the hall reading a book. We weren’t in a cartoon anymore. No Snoopy, no Charlie Brown, no Linus, not even Lucy to tell us that no matter what we were doing, we were doing it wrong. And it had all seemed so real, like it was actually happening. As strange as it was being a part of a cartoon, it had felt normal, like I’d been there before. And now, even though I was back home and could smell breakfast cooking downstairs, something was missing. Oh well, maybe I’d figure out what that something was as the day went along.
I headed to the bathroom, got dressed, and trundled downstairs to see what was happening. Mom was busy in the kitchen and dad was still downstairs in his office. Yup, it seemed pretty ordinary alright, even down to my little brother Joshua. Josh was always getting into my things and messing them up. When he was around, toys flew. Oh well, he was still in diapers and probably didn’t know any better. But sometimes he gave me a look that said he knew exactly what he was doing and knew that he could get away with it ‘cause he was just a dumb little toddler. Finally, Josh caught my attention, gave me the cutest little smile, then pitched a wooden spoon right at my nose. Good thing his aim was off. Good grief!
In the next minute both sets of stairs came alive. Dad pounded up from the basement and Luke barefooted down from the hallway with his beat up copy of Cars still in his hand. I off and looked out the window from our classroom (both Luke and I were being homeschooled. So far I liked it a lot and so did Luke but both of us knew for sure that when Josh joined our lessons he was going to be the class clown) to see if Charlie Brown might be outside playing in the street but then I remembered. No Charlie out there at all but it sure was snowing, coming straight down. The driveway was already under a thick blanket of snow. Wow! Maybe we’d go sledding today! And I’d almost forgotten, it was Christmas Eve. That it was snowing made it perfect.
Dad yelled out to come and sit for breakfast. A glance told me Josh had already started and was surrounded by a rainbow of food. If he ate everything put before him Joshua would be as big as a walrus, so maybe being messy was a good thing. We sat and for a change Luke led us in prayer. He even remembered it was Christmas Eve and added a blessing for Santa and his reindeer. Good move. When it comes to holidays and birthdays Luke is pretty sharp. Keeps his wits about him and always knows who to thank. Yes, I like my brother a lot. Just then, Josh got one of those looks on his face, put a piece of egg on his thumb and gave it a flick across the table right into Luke’s eye just as he was saying amen. Boy, one of these days….
For the next minute it was real quiet around the table as we all dug in to eat. Mmmmm, was I hungry. I guess kite flying out in the open air, even if that open air was in a dream, is quite a workout. Then dad began to speak,
“Did you you boys notice how hard it was snowing outside? And it’s supposed to keep it up all day and even into the night. They’re saying this might be the biggest snowfall we’ve ever had on Christmas Eve. Two feet or more. If the forecast is right, I doubt very much if we’ll drive anywhere today. Might even have to miss church tonight. But one way or the other we’ll get out for an hour or two. Maybe go sliding.
“This reminds of the time many years ago when I was about Luke’s age. It was a Sunday. Grandma Lois was off to a hairdresser’s convention and we were home alone with Gramps. We were supposed to go to church in the morning but Gramps thought that would be a waste of a perfectly good snowfall. Over the night we’d had close to a foot of the fluffiest, white snow I’d ever seen and Gramps was determined that we should get the toboggan out and head across town to the steepest hill he knew of. Yeah, Gramps loved to sled. I was still in diapers the first time we went out on our old Flexible Flyer. It had steel runners and a wood slat top. Gramps would sit in the back, feet on the steering bar, slide me between his legs and off we’d go, zooming down the hill and braking to a stop just before we’d have tumbled into Minnehaha Creek. Boy was that fun.
“Anyhow, on that Sunday morning, Gramps, Annie and I drove across town to a golf course, trudged across a big field, up a huge, steep hill, across two, small valleys and we were there. The hill wasn’t so much a hill as it was a cliff and I was a little bit scared that we’d go tumbling down onto the frozen creek below. Gramps said not to worry since the light, fluffy snow would slow us down enough so it wouldn’t be dangerous. He was right though we still flew down in a cloud of snow. Once at the bottom, all I could think of was, we had to climb back up as fast as we could so we could go down again, and again, and again. That was sure a good day.”
So that’s what the five of us did for our Christmas Eve. We hung around the house, read, played games, learned a little, ate, went out and played in the snow. Good day. In the afternoon we had a video chat with Grandma Lois, Gramps, Aunt Annie, Uncle Ryan and my cousins Jakob and Mollie. All of us were supposed be together for the day but Gramps came down with some kind of bug and he didn’t want to take a chance on Joshua catching it. Talking on the computer was okay but I sure wish we could have been together. Before signing off, Gramps said Luke and I should pay attention to my dreams that night seeing as how it was Christmas Eve.
“Yeah, tonight’s a pretty powerful night alright. Would even be more so except for all those visions of sugarplums dancing through children’s heads. That much sugar floating around in the atmosphere kind of clogs up the dream airwaves. Get’s between the dreamer and where the dream’s coming from. And all those dream presents floatin’ around up there also get in the way of what’s really important but that’s the way it is and it’s pretty good in it’s own way. Remember what I said Matt; you too Luke, listen to your dreams tonight, they’ll be humdingers. Should the two of you not know what a humdinger is, well, let’s just say you’ll find out.”
It turned out dad was right. It snowed and snowed and snowed. Snowed so hard and deep it was halfway up the garage door. Looked like we were staying home. So we made popcorn after dinner and watched the Peanuts movie. I kept looking for Luke and I in the background but we weren’t there. Finally, we put on our pajamas, brushed our teeth, read a couple of stories and went to bed. It took a while to fall asleep. I knew what tonight was, who was coming and what tomorrow would bring. Across the hall I could hear Luke bouncing around on his bed for a few minutes, then the house grew quiet, quiet as a mouse that wasn’t stirring.
No sooner did I fall asleep than I woke up in a dream. Gramps, had just creaked the door open and already had Luke with him. Luke put his finger to his lips to let me know I should be quiet. No doubt Gramps would have done the same but once again he was nothing but a big nose with tiny legs and arms; no lips at all. Gramps then quietly laid on the floor, we each climbed into a nostril and immediately blasted through the ceiling like a comet into the night and the still falling snow.
As we rocketed across the city trailing a shower of sparks, Gramps said we were off to do some sledding and he knew just the right hill, “It’s on the other side of the world but shouldn’t take us long to get there.”
For sure I thought we might be heading to Mount Everest, the tallest mountain in the world, but no, Gramps had someplace else in mind. Next thing I knew we were passing over Mount Fuji in Japan. It was covered in snow and sure looked like a great place to sled but once again, Gramps said no, “The Japanese hold Mount Fuji as a holy mountain and I don’t know if they’d take kindly to two American boys sliding down it’s slope in an over-sized nose.”
A moment later we were half-way across the Pacific Ocean, going faster and faster, still trailing the shower of fire and sparks. I bet we made the news on every TV channel in the world. Then Gramps slowed. Then slowed some more and we dove down through the clouds toward a few green dots in the middle of the water. They quickly grew bigger and bigger. Islands!
“The Hawaiian Islands,” said Gramps.
Gramps pulled up from his dive and for a few seconds, we skimmed along the wave tops, then dropped onto the face of a huge wave and surfed it into shore. Cowabunga! Just before it crashed on the sand, Gramps soared straight up again and headed inland to the two big volcanoes in the middle.
“The one to the right’s still active and way too hot to hold onto it’s snow. There’s not a lot on Mauna Loa on the left but there’s enough. Besides Luke and Matt, how often do two Minnesota boys get a chance to go surfing and sledding in Hawaii on Christmas Eve?”
Let me tell you, the thought of what we were doing was a lot better than our half-minute slide on our nose of a Grandpa. Oh well, sometimes you simply have to be happy with what you’ve got.
As soon as we neared the end of the snowpack and the beginning of the rocks and lava Gramps yelled, “Hang on boys, we’re outta here and off to have some real fun.”
Once again we turned into the Christmas comet, roared across the rest of the ocean and into the United States. This had been fun, no doubt about it, but I wasn’t ready to go home yet. No way.
Down below, the lights of the big cities lit up the West Coast like it was day. I’d never given it much thought till now that there must be places in the world where it never gets dark at night. Over the ocean the little, twinkling stars had shed enough light to make the wave tops glow. It was beautiful passing over all the gentle, ever-changing light on the deep, black waves. Now here on the coast, the cities were so bright the ocean turned to a black nothing. I couldn’t see it at all.
However, as we continued to roar across the country the light from the cities and towns below slowly grew softer and smaller, fading till finally the land below had no lights at all. We began to slow and Gramps glided in a long arc toward the soft, mid-day, luster of a moonlit, snowy night below.
Gramps yelled, “Look out boys there’s a cloud of something floating below.”
Even though I’m still pretty young, I have passed through a few unusual things in my life but nothing like that cloud of sugar plums. And I have no idea what sugar plums really are. Ask me today and I’ll still say I have no idea but the one’s we smacked into were certainly sweet, sticky and stained our pajamas something awful. Mom was gonna be mad. We came to rest on a rooftop.
Luke and I crawled out of Gramps, still in our pajamas but we weren’t cold at all.
I asked, “Where are we Gramps?”
“Maybe a better question Matt would be, when are we? Truth is we’re right on the edge of New York City in the year of 1822. I figured since this was Christmas Eve and it’s one minute before midnight, this might be the best place in the whole world and the second best place in all of time to be on Christmas Eve. And since this very house and time wasn’t all that far away, we might as well start here.”
Off in the distance I heard something. At least I thought I did. Sounded like bells. Maybe jingle bells? Yes.
Then Luke yelled, “Look! Over there!”
Sure enough here he came. Yup, he was on a big, red sleigh with a huge sack in the back and up front, curving their way through the moonbeams, was a team of coursers (whatever coursers are. The certainly looked like reindeer to Luke and I. What else could they be? Kangaroos?) and St. Nick was calling out their names. The only one’s I caught were Prancer and Donder. Gramps sure knew how to have fun alright. We scampered out of the way just as the sleigh and team landed and slid to a stop right where we’d been standing. The odd thing was, Saint Nicholas never gave us a glance but immediately sprang to his work like he was in a big hurry. Grabbed a few things out of the sack, threw them in a little bag, put his finger alongside his nose and jumped in the chimney. Yes, I know that’s what St. Nick’s is supposed to do but you’d think if he could fly through the sky, he could find a better way to get into a house. Anyhow, ten seconds after he hit the roof, he was out of sight.
That’s when the trouble started. No sooner was St. Nick gone then were heard a laugh. Sounded familiar. Too familiar. Just then a ball flew out of the big sack, hit Luke on the nose and nearly knocked him off the roof. What in the world was happening? Then out flew a doll that whizzed past my ear. More laughter came from the bag followed by a fountain of toys, dolls, sleds, rocking horses, tops, a jack-in-the-box and finally, out popped Joshua’s head with that look on his face he always gives me when he knows exactly what he’s doing and when he’s doing something that should never be done. Oh no, this was big trouble!
Over the next ten seconds hundreds of toys exploded out all over the roof and the moonlit lawn below. What would St. Nick do? What would we do?
Then Gramps laughed, “Let’s us get to work boys. Luke, you scamper over the roof and throw everything into a pile. Matt you do the same in the yard below. Me, I’ll stuff Josh up my nose where he can’t get into any more trouble.”
So that’s what we did. Sprang to work more rapid than eagles and stacked all the toys into two big piles. Meanwhile, Gramps gave a snort, sucked up Joshua and quickly followed that by flying around the roof and yard, snorting while he flew. Back on the roof, a downward blast shot them back into St. Nick’s sack.
“Oops, best not forget this guy,” and he plucked Josh from the big bag. Josh looked like he had no idea what was going on but we did. A moment later, tucked safely into Gramps’ nose the four of us were again off and cometing across the sky.
“Uff da! That was close boys. Good thing we skedaddled when we did. No matter how jolly old Saint Nicholas might be I don’t think he’d of taken kindly to your little brother’s antics.
“Now hang on, we’re off to somewhere far away. First we’ll soar up near the top of the sky right under the edge of outer space. Gotta find us a special star. She’s different than any star that’s ever been or ever will be and she’ll tell us right where to go.”
So that’s what we did. And, sure enough, Gramps found the star. We circled it once, twice, three times, then followed one of its beams down to a cozy, adobe town in the middle of some hills. Gramps landed behind a small barn and we climbed out.
“We can only stay a minute so you have to be quick. We need to be in and out so fast no one will ever know we’ve been here. Here, put these on.”
Luke and I put on the rough, woolen robes he gave us. While we dressed, Gramps put a robe on Josh. Then he gave us each something.
“They’re gifts for the baby and the mom and dad you’ll find in the barn. Don’t say a word, they won’t understand you anyway.”
The three of us scooted around the little barn and slipped through the open door. There we found a bearded man, a young lady and a baby. The baby was wrapped tightly in a blanket and lying on a bed of straw in a feeding trough. Looked like times were tough for those folks.
We bowed to the three and set down our gifts. It was then I noticed what Gramps had given us. Luke’s was a little, purple, stocking cap with Show Your Horns stitched across the front. Josh’s was a bundle of organic, cotton diapers and two safety pins with maroon and gold gophers on the clasps. And mine was a paper bag of Minnesota honey crisp apples. I chuckled.
Later, Gramps said, “Well, He might be the son of God but that doesn’t mean he can find our little slice of heaven on the map. Maybe when the time comes, Jesus will come up north and go fishing with us before He moves on. Though it would no doubt take a miracle for a first-timer from the Middle East to catch a lake trout.”
Again we were off, Christmas comet soaring and racing the rising sun behind us. In two shakes of a lamb’s tale, almost three, and we came crashing through the roof of home. What a night!
I woke to Luke banging on my door. Wow! Christmas morning! The two of us quietly snuck down the stairs so we wouldn’t wake mom and dad but mostly Josh. Nope, there was no way we wanted to wake Joshua. He needed his sleep after all the trouble he’d caused St. Nick. From what Luke and I could see, Josh’s mischief hadn’t slowed the jolly, old elf down one bit.
I looked at Luke and asked, “That sure was something last night wasn’t it?”
Luke said, “It sure was,” and reached into his pajamas, “want to share an apple?”
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