To Love, Honor and Cherish

by Timothy Paterson

  Chapter 8

  It was early Christmas morning around one o’clock. Joe was in his room, waiting for the signal. Suddenly, his pager went off. His plan was about to unfold. Joe heard someone downstairs. He peeked out of his room and saw Mark and Luke sneaking down the stairs, followed soon after, by Mary and Matt and finally, John and Paul snuck down as well.

  Mark was determined to prove to Matt and Mary that Santa was real. He had his disposable camera with him. When he was halfway down the stairs, he stopped, too shocked to move or say anything. There in the family room, was someone in a big red coat and pants that were both trimmed with white. “It’s Santa” thought Mark and snapped a couple photos of him. Santa turned to look at him and when Mark saw his face, he knew that it was Santa.

  By now, the rest of the kids were sitting on the stairs watching Santa put presents under the Christmas tree. Matt and Mary were whispering to each other. Matt thought that it was Joe in a Santa suit, and Mary thought it was their mom in the suit. As they were discussing it, they heard someone coming down the stairs behind them. They turned around and were both shocked to see both their mother and Joe standing there. They looked back in the family room and Santa was still there. “Could Santa be real after all?” they both thought.

  Betty told everyone to go back to bed before Santa took back all of the presents. Matt started to ask a question, “How….?”, but before he could finish his question, his mom just said “To bed, now!”

  When all of the kids were back in bed, they heard noises coming from the roof. They heard bells jingling, animal noises, and something moving across the roof. They also heard someone saying a lot of “Ho-Ho-Ho’s and then they all heard: “Merry Christmas to all of you”.

  None of the kids could go to sleep. The younger ones were very excited that they saw Santa and they were anxious to open their presents. Mary and Matt could not sleep because they were very confused and bewildered. They both believed that there was no Santa, not a real one anyway. Yet, they had both seen him and heard a sleigh and reindeer as well as Santa on their roof.

  The children finally fell back to sleep. By six o’clock, everybody was up, and when Betty and Joe went downstairs, they found all six children eagerly waiting for them in the family room.

  Joe asked Matt if he would go outside and get the newspaper. Both Matt and Mary ran to the door and to the porch to get the paper. They looked down at the ground and they saw a few piles of reindeer droppings on the lawn. Both of them were speechless.

  Betty went after them to see what was keeping them, and found them standing on the porch staring at the lawn. For a minute, neither of them spoke, then, Matt asked his mom “Santa isn’t real, is he? He can’t be real. It does not make sense. But, we all saw him last night. We all heard him on the roof. We heard a sleigh and reindeer on our roof, and there are reindeer droppings in our front yard. Was it all a dream?” Both Mary and Matt had a strange look on their faces. They were a little scared, a little anxious and they also felt awe and wonder that they had not felt since they were six or seven, and Christmas was still magical and mystical.

  Betty put an arm around each of them and said; “Christmas is a time of magic, mystery and wonder. Reality does not always make sense, and imagination sometimes makes things seem real. Merry Christmas to both of you. Now, let’s go inside and open presents”

  It was over a year later, that Matt and Mary found out how Joe and their mom had pulled this Christmas magic off. Joe had found someone who was a professional Santa and Joe arranged for him to deliver the presents at their house. Joe had gotten some reindeer droppings from the zoo, to put in the yard. As for the noises on the roof, Joe and a friend had installed speakers and a sound system in the attic space above the bedrooms and had recorded the noises that the kids had heard. Joe had a remote control device to turn the recording on and off. In subsequent years, Mary and Matt helped Joe to fool the younger children.

  It was finally time to open presents. By this time, all of the children were convinced that Santa had brought the gifts. Each of the children received a lot of new clothes as well as new shoes and a new coat. Betty’s gifts included a new coat, a luxurious bathrobe, and several gift certificates to clothing stores to buy herself a new wardrobe and new nursing uniforms after the baby was born.

  Each of the children also got one or two things that they really wanted. John got a racetrack. Luke got a magic set. Mark got a basketball and a pair of rollerblades with pads and helmet. Matt was ecstatic when he opened his gifts, which included a nice pen and pencil set, journals and a nice supply of art supplies- paints, sketch books, etc… Mary received a nice tennis racquet and instructional book and video about tennis. She had been interested in tennis and wanted to learn how to play. The gift that she loved the most was a beautiful, fancy dress that fit her perfectly and a pair of clip-on diamond earrings.

  There was one present left under the tree. It was a small box addressed to Betty. She opened it and found a set of car keys and a note that said to go to the garage. When Betty opened the garage, she saw a brand new van that could seat 11 people. Betty started crying. Her old van was 11 years old and kept breaking down, and they really needed a new van.

  While the kids were playing with their toys, Betty told Joe that he should not have bought all of the gifts, clothes and the van. Joe told her that his parents left him more money than he could ever use. “Besides, you and your kids are my family now,” said Joe.

  Betty hugged Joe and told him “your parents would be so proud of you, Joe.”

  Suddenly, Matt and Mary ran into the room. “Mom, we forgot to give Joe his present,” said Mary. Then, she and Matt handed Joe a large flat package. Joe opened the present and found a portrait of the Rogers family. Joe loved it and he thanked them and went to hang it in his bedroom.

  The next day, Joe took Mark’s disposable camera to be developed. He made copies of the Santa photos for each of the children as well as one for Betty and one for himself, so that they would always remember their first Christmas together.