The Romance Reviews

Wednesday 15 December 2010

Wishing you Holiday Happiness


It's the time of year to wish all of my friends
both near and far
all of the joys of the season
...just a little gift,
a simple short story to spread some holiday cheer

Holiday Happiness
by Chelle Cordero

It seemed like only a few days ago when we were all packing away the Menorah and Christmas ornaments – and here we were again, buying toys that we really couldn’t afford.

Dan and I agreed that the kids wouldn’t suffer because business had been so poor. We knew how lucky we were, the Johnson’s down the street lost their home this past year and they had to move away – I miss them, Joy was a fun person.

Still, we had to cut down, we couldn’t spend like we had in years past. There were so many things we saw in the store that we knew the kids would like and it was so difficult to restrain ourselves. They needed new clothing, socks and underwear, those make up most of the packages. The gaily wrapped boxes made it look exciting anyway. Just one real frivolous toy each; lucky for us they are little and the expensive stuff doesn’t have any more glitter in their eyes. We settled for a new baby doll for Laurie, a set of plastic building blocks for Donny, and a catcher’s mitt and plastic bat for Billy.

I cooked Dan’s favorite dinner for him. We agreed not to buy gifts for each other, but I wanted to do something, something nice just for him. He loves pot roast so I paid premium price for a few pounds of top round and I simmered it all the way to “melt in your mouth”. He deserves so much more. I am so lucky, he works hard to take care of his family.

We had such wonderful dreams when we were dating – a house, a family, nice cars in the driveway, yearly vacations, jewelry, fun, glamour… We’ve got three beautiful children and a house that we’re struggling to hold onto. We’re down to one car that’s long past even being listed in resale guides. Our vacations consist of backyard barbecues and movie nights are a rented DVD. I wish that I could ignore those bills just for the holiday season, but apparently Scrooge runs the utility department.


4 comments:

Savanna Kougar said...

Chelle, beautiful story. It is about family, and being loved and taking care of each other.

Bekki Lynn said...

That feeling of love and sharing will be the memory your kids will grow up with. That's important, not the gifts that will be forgotten by New Years. Thanks for sharing, Chelle.

Chelle Cordero said...

Savanna & Bekki thanks for your comments. I loved writing this story, I see so many families going through these hard times nowadays.

Hope your holiday season is wonderful and ful of family, love and warmth.

Lindsay Townsend said...

Beautiful, touching story, Chelle, about the things that really matter. It made me cry in a happy way...