My Mom was born in 1917.  I remember her telling me that one time she got a doll.  Like most kids back then they didnt have alot of play things.  She was the oldest of what would be 7 siblings almost year after year.  As soon as she was old enough to do chores she was doing them, with her Momma being pregnant almost every year my Mom did alot of chores when young.  She told me she remember being stood u p on a kitchen chair with a scrub board and lye soap and scrubbing out diapers, socks, underwear and her mom taking them out to hang on the line to dry.  Her Mom did the heavy pieces.  And as time flew by she became the 2nd mom to the younger kids as my Grandma was not feeling well most of the time when looking at her symptoms now I think she was suffering from heart and thyroid problems but back then no one knew how to tell those things.  

I am telling you this for a back ground to this Christmas Story.

When my mom was about 8 years old she saw a doll in a window and wished and wished she would get it for Christmas and her Daddy always did his best to do what he could for his family.  He managed to get her this doll. 

Well Momma love her doll, made it clothes she sewed herself out of scraps of fabric or clothes her momma was going to use for rags. 

Well later that year.. the flu hit and people were dying.  And as kids do sometimes she decided she was going to play nurse to her doll which got the flu.  and of course her precious doll died.. so Momma wrapped her doll in a sheet and her and her brothers and sisters all played funeral.  There was pretend weeping, and her brother next to her in age ..7 was the priest who blessed the funeral.  And they laid the doll down and put dirt over her....

Well. that night it comenced to rain and rain really hard.  And back then doll heads were often made of cheap paper mache.  And the next day when momma went to get her doll its head and arms were disoloved all thtat was left was a fabric pillow that had been her body. 

She would tell us this story just about every year at Christmas time.  And told u s to always be thankful for what Santa Clause would bring and to take good care of it. 

Well one year when I was about 9 I decided i would take the pennies and dimes I had saved. And my grandma always gave us 1.00 each to buy gifts for people we loved.  Well I decided that I was going to spend my whole dollar on a dime store doll.  And some fabric with which I made a simple dress.  And put it under the tree for my Mom.  On Christmas morning that year I remember my mom opening that gift and  she had tears in her eyes after unwrapping it.. as she said thank you Susie. 

 My mom kept that doll for years.. and then I dont know what happened to it.. I suppose it got lost in the shuffle of moving  several times.

But that is the Christmas Morning I remember the most vividly.  It was that year that I found out that Giving gifts to someone else was much more fun than getting them. 

Tags: Children Doll Giving Loosing Finding Out Whats Important