A Sad Christmas Story

Subtitle: The Origins of a Christmas Tradition

Posted by Karla Lofgren Davis, 12/06/08

A Christmas Story for people having a bad day:

When four of Santa's elves got sick, the trainee elves did not produce toys as fast as the regular ones, and Santa began to feel the Pre-Christmas pressure.

Then Mrs Claus told Santa her Mother was coming to visit, which stressed Santa even more.

When he went to harness the reindeer, he found that three of them were about to give birth and two others had jumped the fence and were out, Heaven knows where.

Then when he began to load the sleigh, one of the floorboards cracked, the toy bag fell to the ground and all the toys were scattered.

Frustrated, Santa went in the house for a cup of apple cider and a shot of rum. When he went to the cupboard, he discovered the elves had consumed  all the cider and hidden the rum. In his frustration, he accidentally dropped the cider jug, and it broke into hundreds of little glass pieces all over the kitchen floor. He went to get the broom and found the mice had eaten all the straw off the end of the broom.

Just then the doorbell rang, and irritated Santa marched to the door, yanked it open, and there stood a little angel with a great big Christmas tree.

The angel said very cheerfully, 'Merry Christmas, Santa. Isn't this a lovely day? I have a beautiful tree for you. Where would you like me to stick it?'

And so began the tradition of the little angel on top of the Christmas tree.

This story was sent to us after Ed experienced a similarly frustrating day Saturday (Nov 29, 2008), and we had a good laugh, as that is just about how Ed felt. I was glad I was not his designated Christmas angel.

Here’s the true story of Ed’s frustrating Saturday. He went out to hang our outside lights, giving himself just enough time so he would be finished before the Baylor game came on TV, However, he started hanging the lights at a different place than usual and when he got to the end – ready to plug them in and be done with the project - he realized he had two female plugs.

OK – he had just enough time to get to the store and get something to convert one end. Of course, if you are an electrician you know it is illegal to do that – something about a fire being certain as the current will flow backward, or something.

So home again, during breaks in the game (not the relaxing recliner respite he was anticipating) Ed proceeded to take down everything he had done and start at the usual place. He finished just as half time ended, plugged the lights in, turned the lights on, and – you guessed it -  malfunction junction – about half the lights didn’t work. He stewed throughout the rest of the game. But when the game was over - after consultation with his sympathetic wife, and without wasting energy on figuring out what had gone wrong - we decided he could just hang the lights this way this year. Click on photo to enlarge.

Naw, not really. But he did rip them all down, roll them up in a ball, and cram them in a dumpster. And we lived happily ever after!!!

 

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Comments

[Marlynn Strauss]

Loved it, Karla, and loved the solution even more.

[Sheila Steele Howard]

Just had to let all know that we have had snow here off and on all day. True, the flakes are small and puny compared to northern climes but for Austin County this is a snowfall. Remember February of our senior year when we had about 5 inches of snow that stayed on the ground for days. Think we built a snowman in the middle of Weir Drive one night. Sonny was probably the ring leader.