Best Christmas Memory

I grew up the only child of a single mom, and we were tighter than pantie hose 2 sizes small! Still are to this day. We accept each others flaws, hoping we both grow, but not judging the other less worthy because of our imperfections.

One Christmas, mommy got her Christmas club money out and we headed to Toys'R'Us to get your boy his Christmas wishes. We went in the store and shopped every isle. I was elated, then we got to the cash register, and something had gone wrong. The yellow envelope that mommy's money was in was gone. Seems it fell out of her pocketbook when we got out of the car to go into the store. We searched to no avail, so we left the store with me confused and mommy in tears.

Mommy was proud. She was/is the kind of woman who finds it hard to ever ask anyone for anything (a pathology we share), and so we were resolved to have a less than perfect Christmas... still, we had each other.

Well, just like old fabled St. Nicholas, my grandpop (God rest his soul) showed up on a snowy Christmas Eve. His nickname happened to be Nick too. He had a motto, "Say it with cash," and that's what he did. He heard what had happened and he came around with a little "ice cream money" for us!



My fondest Christmas memory is the one of me and my mother walking through Jersey City... up Monticello Ave, through McGinley Square, and into Journal Square, buying gifts all along the way on a snowy Christmas Eve. I don't remember what we bought, but I remember holding her hand, and I remember our footprints in the snow.



Do you have a favorite Christmas memory?