Christmas Troubles

Ah, yes, Christmas morning, the day when so many kids around the world wake up so early, wake up their parents and run downstairs, wait patiently until their parents drag themselves out of bed, and then rip open there presents, and dig through their stockings, I say so many kids because I always seem to be listening to stories of that happening, I never really get to experience that, I mean, sure I have Christmas, but I don't really get excited about it.

Okay, that was a lot to just through on you all at once, maybe I should back up a little bit, and start at the beginning, My name is Richard Gerhardt, and I'm an orphan, I wasn't always, but unfortunately, my parents made the fatal mistake of taking a trip on the Hindenburg, and well, we all know how that went. BOOM

We were coming from frankfurt Germany and for my unexpecting parents, the Hindenburg was a godsend, a fast way to get us out of the country and into America. We got on, and I was the only one who got off.

I had a grandmother that was already living in the states, and so after I spent a week or two in the hospital, because of the burns I got from the fire, I went to live with her in her tiny apartment in New York City.

Yes, she was that kind of Grandmother, the kind that bakes cookies on a daily bases, and loves to tell stories, and wears ugly Christmas sweaters all the time.

So that leads me back to the Christmas problem. I suppose Christmas would be alright, but all I got were sweaters, or clothes that I never wore. I know, Christmas isn't all about the getting, but the other reason is, that she never wanted anything, and so I had nothing to give either.

So Christmas wasn't my favorite time of year. I woke up on Christmas eve, to the smell of smoke, and I groaned, Grandma was attempting to make dinner again, it never worked out.

I quickly got dressed and ran to the kitchen where my grandma was waving a towel to try to get rid of the smoke. I took a towel and helped her. Finally, the smoke cleared and I saw a burned chicken on the stove.

"Your up early," my grandma said.

"I couldn't sleep with all that smoke."

"What, speak up?"

"I couldn't sleep with all that smoke"

"Well, now that your up, help me with breakfast will you."

"Sure grandma"

I made us some eggs, and we ate. After breakfast, I went back to my room to read, but only a couple minutes past before grandma barged into my room.

"Can you help me put up the tree?" she asked

"Sure." I sighed, then I mumbled under my breath, "Again."

"What was that?"

"Nothing"

"Okay, remember, speak up"

"Yes, ma'am."

I took the tree out of the hall closet and set it up by myself, for the fourth Christmas Eve in a row.

After I finished setting it up in the small living room, I went back to my room, slammed the door, and flopped on my bed.

'I wish my parents were here.' I thought for the billionth time.

But there weren't there, and they never will be. I pulled out a book, A Wrinkle In Time, the title read, I had read this book many a time, but it never got old for me. For those of you who don't know, it's about a girl that travels across the universe to fight an evil brain to save her father.

I read it, once, twice, then three times. I put it down and fired up my PlayStation that I saved p for with my own allowance, it took me 2 years. I fired it up listened to the hard drive hum. I waited a minute then chose a game to play, Super Mario Bros, why not.

After playing for several more hours I left my room. My intention was to go to the bathroom, but Grandma caught me and asked "Ready for dinner?"

By that, she meant "ready to make dinner?"

"Sure I replied, and soon I had a good chicken breast cooking with a chef salad as the side.

We sat in awkward silence while we ate, but we ate. As soon as I was done I stood up and walked back into my bedroom.

I lay on my bed for a while, but eventually, I fell asleep.

I awoke later that night and heard grandma moving around in the living room, probably putting out presents.

I fell back to sleep and didn't wake for another several hours. When I awoke again I looked at the clock and saw the time, 7:00.

"Time to get up!!" I heard grandma call.

I got up and stumbled into the living room. I smelled the fake pin tree smell from the fake tree, but it smelled more like dust and mothballs now, for grandma had had it for a decade or so.

I grabbed a cookie from the counter and took a big bight. Yum, chocolate cinnamon, with chunks of banana, my favorite.

My bare feet turned cold as soon as I stepped onto the hard fake wood floor of the living room, so when I sat down I tucked them underneath me, crisscross applesauce style.

I wondered if I was going to get anything but clothes for Christmas, but I doubted it.

Grandma came in and leaned over, her back cracking. She picked up a box as I finished off the cookie - the only good thing about Christmas is the cookies in my opinion.

"Here you go," Grandma said, handing me a box wrapped in jungle animal wrapping paper.

"Thanks, I said yawning. I opened it up, trying to seem enthusiastic, and opened the box to find...

The ugliest shirt I had ever seen. It had green lining, a red middle, with what looked like a cross between a giraffe and a hippo on it, but the hipporaffe (Hippo/Giraffe) was bright pink.

"Thanks, Grandma," I said, trying not to puke all over it.

"I really, um, like it."

I hated it with all my heart and soul. At that moment I decided that Christmas would never be my favorite holiday.