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All We Could Give Was Thanks

© Sandy McCollum

It was a tight year for everyone in southeast Alaska that year. Everyone was out of work, not just the usual fishermen, loggers and tourist-oriented workers.

Our mall has a Christmas tree every year and it's decorated with hand-made ornaments that have names on them. Anyone who wishes can take an ornament off the tree and buy gifts for the family named on it. The Boy Scouts usually take care of a large portion of the ornaments and so do the bikers, with their Toys For Joys drive each year.

We were fine with having what little we had that year, especially with nine of us crowded in the little apartment we had. Christmas is a little different in my house, than it is in most other people's houses, and we've only been exchanging gifts when we had them anyway. Someone put our name on an ornament and hung it on that tree and the Boy Scouts picked it up. We had no idea, and to this day we don't know who put us on that tree.

It was very kind of someone to do that, but we always kept to ourselves and didn't ask for help. We didn't even know anyone else had noticed our condition, so what happened next was so humiliating that I almost cried. Maybe it was just such a surprise, I don't know. My neighbor that lived upstairs from us came over one day and wanted to know what we wanted for Christmas. Now, I hardly knew this woman at the time, and I found it a little strange that she just popped over to see what we all wanted. I didn't go into any details, but I did say the kids needed pajamas and Ryan needed a shirt, etc. I named nothing for my husband and myself and I didn't mention the other adults that lived with us, either.

Christmas Eve, these neighbors came over to our house. It still makes me get all misty-eyed to think about it. They brought a gift for every single person in our household, even me! Even for the others that lived with us! They brought a small turkey, potatoes and pumpkin pie mix, a bottle of Spirits and good company. They told us they'd gotten our name from the tree and that was the reason for asking us what we all wanted, and we laughed at my reaction at the time. We all drank some hot toddies and had a very nice visit, and became fast friends that Christmas Eve. I guess we got more than one gift each.

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