Christmas Adventure with Grandma

My grandma forwarded me this in an email. I thought I'd share.

Christmas adventure with Grandma . . . . . .

I remember my first Christmas adventure with Grandma. I was just a kid. I remember tearing across town on my bike to visit her on the day my big sister dropped the bomb: “There is no Santa Claus,” she jeered. “Even dummies know that!”

My Grandma was not the gushy kind, never had been. I fled to her that day because I knew she would be straight with me. I knew Grandma always told the truth, and I knew that the truth always went down a whole lot easier when swallowed with one of her world-famous cinnamon buns. I knew they were world-famous, because Grandma said so. It had to be true. Grandma was home, and the buns were still warm.

Between bites, I told her everything.

She was ready for me.

“No Santa Claus!” she snorted. “Ridiculous! Don’t believe it. That rumor has been going around for years, and it makes me mad, plain mad. Now, put on your coat, and let’s go.”

“Go? Go where, Grandma?” I asked. I hadn’t even finished my second world-famous, cinnamon bun.

‘Where’ turned out to be Kerby’s General Store, the one store in town that had a little bit of just about everything. As we walked through its doors, Grandma handed me ten dollars. That was a bundle in those days.

“Take this money,” she said, “and buy something for someone who needs it. I'll wait for you in the car.”

Then she turned and walked out of Kerby’s.

I was only eight years old. I’d often gone shopping with my mother, but never had I shopped for anything all by myself. The store seemed big and crowded, full of people scrambling to finish their Christmas shopping. For a few moments I just stood there, confused, clutching that ten-dollar bill, wondering what to buy, and who on earth to buy it for.

I thought of everybody I knew: my family, my friends, my neighbors, the kids at school, the people who went to my church. I was just about thought out, when I suddenly thought of Bobby Decker. He was a kid with bad breath and messy hair, and he sat right behind me in Mrs. Pollock’s grade-two class.

Bobby Decker didn’t have a coat. I knew that because he never went out for recess during the winter. His mother always wrote a note, telling the teacher that he had a cough, but all we kids knew that Bobby Decker didn't have a cough, and he didn't have a coat. I fingered the ten-dollar bill with growing excitement. I would buy Bobby Decker a coat!

I settled on a red corduroy one that had a hood to it. It looked real warm, and he would like that.

“Is this a Christmas present for someone?” the lady behind the counter asked kindly, as I laid my ten dollars down.

“Yes,” I replied shyly. “It’s .... for Bobby. He doesn’t have a coat.”

The nice lady smiled at me.

I didn’t get any change, but she put the coat in a bag and wished me a Merry Christmas.

That evening, Grandma helped me wrap the coat in Christmas paper and ribbons (a little tag fell out of the coat, and Grandma tucked it in her Bible) and wrote on the package, ‘To Bobby, From Santa Claus’ -- Grandma said that Santa always insisted on secrecy.

Then she drove me over to Bobby Decker’s house, explaining as we went that I was now and

forever officially one of Santa’s helpers.

Grandma parked down the street from Bobby’s house, and she and I crept noiselessly and hid in the bushes by his front walk.

Then Grandma gave me a nudge. “All right, Santa Claus,” she whispered, “get going.”

I took a deep breath, dashed for his front door, threw the present down on his step, pounded his doorbell and flew back to the safety of the bushes and Grandma.

Together we waited breathlessly in the darkness for the front door to open.

Finally it did, and there stood Bobby.

Fifty years haven’t dimmed the thrill of those moments spent shivering, beside my Grandma, in Bobby Decker’s bushes.

That night, I realized that those awful rumors about Santa Claus were just what Grandma said they were: ridiculous. Santa was alive and well and we were on his team.

I still have the Bible, with the tag tucked inside: $19.95.

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He who has no Christmas in his heart,

will never find Christmas under a tree.

Looney Island©

One day Goonie Monster was walking through the woods and he came across an abnormally tall bunny named Alfred.
They began talking and immediatly became friends.
They walked further into the woods together and found a purple snake named Eugene.

Eugene was also abnormally large for the area. Goonie and Alfred soon found out that Eugene was from China. They are far from China. They are in "Looney Island". They all became friends. They were three of a kind, they got along very well.One night they camped out around a fire. They were telling stories when suddenly a noise came from the trees behind them.

Since Goonie was the biggest one he was nominated to go check it out.l
In the bushes he found a scared little string bean named Elmer.

They invited Elmer to join them. The next day all four of them continued to walk. Later in the afternoon they were getting pretty hungry.
A few minutes later they came across a giant pink cell phone. Of course, they didn't know what it was. They thought it was a massive amount of food.
They began to fight over the cell phone. They argued and argued for hours. Finally a slow moving snail came along and saw the four arguing. He asked them why they were arguing. They said that they were hungry and they didn't want to share. The snail, Sir Snail said: "If hyou are true friends and are really hungry you would divide that cell phone and share. BUT! You cannot eat a cell phone....


Here is a circus peanut...."

THE END

Story by: Sharifa and Mariam
Photography by: Sharifa and Mariam
Characters made by: Sharifa and Mariam