Adventures With Grandma

I received this in an email this morning and couldn’t resist. Never hurts to spread some holiday cheer
I remember my  first Christmas adventure with Grandma. I was just a kid. I remember tearing  across town on my bike to visit her on the day my big sister dropped  the bomb: “There is no Santa Claus,” she jeered. “Even dummies know  that!”

My Grandma was not the gushy kind, never had been. I fled to her that day because I knew she would be straight with me. I knew Grandma always  told the truth, and I knew that the truth always went down a whole lot  easier when swallowed with one of her world-famous cinnamon buns. I knew they were world-famous, because Grandma said so. It had to be  true.

Grandma was home, and the buns were still warm. Between bites, I  told her everything. She was ready for me. “No Santa Claus!” she snorted. “Ridiculous! Don’t believe it. That rumor has been going around for years, and it makes me mad, plain mad. Now, put on your coat, and let’s go.”

“Go? Go where, Grandma?” I asked. I hadn’t even finished my  second world-famous, cinnamon bun. “Where” turned out to be Kerby’s  General Store, the one store in town that had a little bit of just about everything. As we walked through its doors, Grandma handed me ten  dollars. That was a bundle in those days. “Take this money,” she said,  ”and buy something for someone who needs it.  I’ll wait for you in the  car.” Then she turned and walked out of Kerby’s.

I was only eight years  old. I’d often gone shopping with my mother, but never had I shopped  for anything all by myself. The store seemed big and crowded, full of  people scrambling to finish their Christmas shopping. For a few moments  I just stood there, confused, clutching that ten- dollar bill,
 wondering what to buy, and who on earth to buy it for.

I thought  of everybody I knew: my family, my friends, my neighbors, the kids at  school, the people who went to my church. I was just about thought out,  when I suddenly thought of Bobby Decker. He was a kid with bad breath and messy hair, and he sat right behind me in  Mrs.Pollock’s  grade-two class. Bobby Decker didn’t have  a coat. I kne w that because he never went out for recess during the winter. His mother  always wrote a note, telling the teacher that he had a cough, but all  we kids knew that Bobby Decker didn’t have a cough, and
he didn’t have a coat. I fingered the ten-dollar bill with  growing excitement. I would buy Bobby Decker a coat!

I  settled on a red corduroy one that had a hood to it. It looked real warm, and he would like that. “Is this a Christmas present for  someone?” the lady behind the counter asked kindly, as I laid my ten dollars down. “Yes,” I replied shyly. “It’s …. for Bobby.” The nice lady  smiled at me. I didn’t get any change, but she put the coat in a bag and wished me a Merry Christmas.

That evening, Grandma helped me wrap the  coat in Christmas paper and ribbons (a little tag fell out of the coat,  and Grandma tucked it in her Bible) and wrote, “To Bobby, From Santa  Claus” on it — Grandma said that Santa always insisted on secrecy.  Then she drove me over to Bobby Decker’s house, explaining as we went that I was now and forever officially one  of Santa’s helpers.

Grandma parked down the street from Bobby’s house, and she and  I crept noiselessly and hid in the bushes by his front walk Then Grandma  gave me a nudge. “All right, Santa Claus,” she whispered, “get  going.”

I took a deep breath, dashed for his front door, threw the  present down on his step, pounded his doorbell and flew back to the  safety of the bushes and Grandma. Together we waited breathlessly in the  darkness for the front door to open. Finally it did, and there stood  Bobby.

Fifty years  haven’t dimmed the thrill of those moments spent shivering, beside my  Grandma, in Bobby Decker’s bushes. That night, I realized that those awful rumors about Santa Claus were just what Grandma said they were: ridiculous.  Santa was alive and well, and we  were on his team.

I still have the Bible, with the tag tucked inside:  $19.95.