Page 18 - Publishing Inspiration Christmas Card 2007

I wanted her surprise to be

something Christmasy, yet it needed to

be practical, so I hurried to a grocery

store which closed at midnight. When

I was young, the only time I got

oranges or nuts was at Christmas, and I

decided to buy some for her. At ten

cents a pound, I bought a forty pound

box of oranges, about five pounds of

nuts, and had enough left over for a

candy bar.

I drove home with my surprise and

left them in my pickup. Our small

apartment had one bedroom that

wouldn’t fit both a crib and a bed, so

we slept on a lumpy hide-a-bed in the

living room. When my wife went into

the bedroom with my daughter, I raced

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