Sixty years ago, on Christmas morning, I opened the present wrapped in newspaper. It was from St. Nick and it was the most wonderful gift I received that year. Much later I learned that my grandpa had made it by hand especially for me.
Today my wife and I exchanged our gifts. When we were done, there was one brightly wrapped present remaining under the tree. She told me to open it. Inside I found the same gift that I had received decades ago.
My wife was only teasing but It brought back fond memories form that Christmas of 1952 and I was back there, a boy of six again: A time of innocence and a belief in things larger than life. It was remembering that my grandpa was a special person as well as a grandparent.
Every year my wife will ask what I want for Christmas and very year I tell her, among other things, a gun. But, I never get a gun. Just when I thought we were through exchanging gifts, she brought one more box out of hiding. Inside this one was a brand new Henry .22 rile with the octagonal barrel, the rifle I had been wanting.
Every once in a while I will experience something from the past that makes me think there are no days better than those we go back to. But, I won’t wait years before admitting today was pretty special.
Merry Christmas.
The spirit of Christmas past and Christmas present.
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