Christmas Stories Yet Untold (Part 4 of 4)

Christmas Stories Yet Untold

Part 4. Conclusion.

Finally my dad, Gerald, couldn't take any more. He tore past his mother and bumped into his sisters, leading the way into the living room where he had carefully set out cookies and milk for Santa. Iona sighed, getting herself ready for the disappointment she knew was coming. Instead she heard laughter from George and absolute frenzy from her three children. She rushed past the old gray and black, tucked comfort she'd hung to help keep the warmth in the room. The cookies were gone, and the milk half gulped. Beneath the tree lay three wrapped presents, one each for Opal, Elizabeth, and herself.

“Oh, my! Look at this! I can't wait to wear this!” Both girls pulled out new dressy coats with fur collars. They looked at their mother's shocked expression and briefly they thought maybe Santa had indeed visited the Millers that cold Christmas Eve. One glance at their dad's face filled in the facts. Suddenly George found himself engulfed in daughters. Iona slowly opened her own gift and found a beautiful ruby glass pitcher with eight matching glasses. Already imagining these glasses on her table, her eyes smiled at George.

As happy as they all were, nobody came close to the nine-year-old jubilation happening right there under the tree. His father's eyes were squinted with laughter. “It's mine? Is this mine? A real Lionel train set? Gerald opened the unwrapped box to get a better look. Everybody knew Santa never wrapped his gifts. Stylish red and black metal cars met stacks of track, and he bent his head to get a good look at the only Lionel train he would ever own, the only one he really ever needed. Way into the night father and son sat together linking track and getting ready for that big moment when the train actually makes its first circle. In the distance Gerald heard the long, slow whistle of Excello's midnight train. “I better get to bed, or that old engineer will take me with him. I will never see you again,” Gerald mumbled.

“Not in a million years. Nobody is taking my boy anywhere,” and with that Gerald truly knew his daddy loved him. Getting that train changed my dad's life. Through the years there would be more troubles, more arguments, and George might not always show the gentler side to his children, but Gerald always knew it was there. And that became my dad's happy-ever-after.

Just the mention of my dad's Lionel train set made his big brown eyes soften and twinkle for the rest of his life. He later had discovered that Red Teter had not needed his dad's help that night to tend his horses, that indeed George had dropped off his family at Mt. Salem and then turned around, walked back to Excello, and proceeded to set up that magical Christmas. Without hesitation after yet another trip through the snow, George had returned to the church to watch the pageant. Elizabeth also discovered her daddy had really heard her piano solo because the Santa at the back of the church that night was not the real Santa, but instead it was George in a borrowed suit. In total, my grandfather had walked a little over nine miles in bitter cold and shin-deep snow to pull off Santa's big scene.

I did not know my grandfather George very well. We seemed to clash a bit, and my dad was always a little edgy when his father came to visit. Grandad passed away quite suddenly when I was eleven, and my dad didn't share this Christmas story for many years after that. Without this Christmas tale, I might never have known or come to appreciate the real person who captured my grandmother Iona's heart. A little boy, the snowy journey, and the trains have become a part of my own Christmas tradition through the magic of story-telling. We never really know a person until we hear the best of their story along with their worst. May your lives ever blend and grow with the true love of the season. May you continue to repeat your own stories yet untold to your loved ones. Merry Christmas.