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The Story Of Santa’s Christmas Sack l Now and then, one of my younger children will ask me how Santa fits all the toys in his sack. I tell them about a Christmas we had many years ago. It was a tough Christmas. We were a young married couple, going to college, with a brand new baby. There was hardly enough money for the necessities, like rent, let alone the luxuries, like food. Besides the tuition and the many other expenses, we were making payments to the hospital. Sometimes, gas for our vehicle could not even be purchased, and I found myself riding a bike the six miles to the university through the snow and cold, with bits of cardboard stuffed in the bottom of my shoes to help keep the water from coming through the holes in them. Our major source of income came from any job I could find on the work board at the university, though they weren’t constant nor high paying jobs. It was at this point that my wife and I made the decision that we could not afford presents. Shortly after Thanksgiving, we took my new little daughter’s favorite toys and hid them so we could wrap them up for Christmas, and at least have something for her to unwrap. Just before Christmas, I got some steady work with a carpet cleaning company. I worked hard, but every dime that came in seemed to be eaten away by past bills. The discouragement of hard classes, little money, and long hours began to settle on me like the long, dark days at the North Pole. To find my way out of this bleak time, I determined I would find some way to save some money, any money, to buy my wife something for Christmas. I tried to save tips or any little extra I could, 11