The Fremont Saga
by: E Walk
(© 2009 by the Author)
 

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Chapter 46  

Overwhelmed by Christmas

On Christmas morning, which fell on Sunday, Merry, Timmy, Tanner and I went running, believe it or not.  When we returned from running, everyone else was sitting at the table.  Morgan looked at us, “It’s about time you got here.  Eat, so we can open our presents.  We always do it after breakfast.”

Timmy went and stood between Mother and Dad, “I don’t want to open the gifts until after we go to church.  Christmas shouldn’t be about gifts.  It should be about Baby Jesus.”

I expected a reaction from Morgan and Lauren, because we always opened our presents after breakfast, as long as I could remember.  Surprisingly enough, no one took issue with what Timmy requested and Lauren even helped with the breakfast dishes.

When we were getting dressed for church, Timmy asked, “Brian, Lauren and Morgan aren’t very happy with me, are they?  Gifts are more important to them than going to church, aren’t they?”

“Timmy, I don’t know if that’s true.  Our family has always opened our gifts after breakfast, and then gone to late service.  You're right, Christmas should be about Jesus and the gifts should come later, because they represent giving like God gave Jesus to us.”

As we were walking to our cars, Tanner whispered, “Brian when did you become so pious.  You’re not thinking of becoming a man of the cloth, so I can't get into your briefs, are you?”

“Look, you sinner, we’ll talk about this later.”

When we were walking into the church, we were met by Father Wanamaker, “Beau and Becca, could you be the ushers, this morning?  The Morleys had an emergency and can’t make it.  It should be a very small group.”

Timmy was sitting between Tanner and me and was looking around, “Why aren’t there very many people here?  There are always more people than this?”

I shrugged, “I guess a lot of people won’t be coming to church, today, since they figure they had been to church last night, and other’s are still unwrapping their gifts and won’t be here until the late service.”

The conversation was interrupted by Dad, “Brian and Lauren, you will need to help us take the collection.  Why don’t the two of you come and help usher, since the other couple hasn’t shown up.”

Timmy was left sitting between Morgan and Tanner and I could see them talking.  There were only a 159 people at the service, including the fathers, organists and the two people who sang a duet.  After the service, Dad and Mother had all of us getting the church ready for the second service.  We were salvaging what we could of the bulletins, to recycle them for the eleven o’clock service when Father Wanamaker came in, “Thanks for your help.  I’m glad that we can always depend on the Benson family.  I’m getting too old to do five services in twenty-four hours.  Thanks for getting the sanctuary ready for the next service.”

As we were walking out of the sanctuary, two little boys and two little girls ran to Father Wanamaker and hugged him,  “Hi granddaddy, we brought you some things to eat.  How soon will church be over?  We want to open our gifts.”

As we were driving to the house, Timmy asked, “If Father Wanamaker isn’t married, why did those boys and girls call him Granddaddy.”

I looked at Timmy, “I don’t know the entire story, but Father Wanamaker and Doctor Crane have two sons.  Those children are the children of the sons and that makes them Father Wanamaker and Doctor Crane’s grandchildren.   They don’t live in Fremont.  We don’t get to see them very often.  We’ll have to ask Dad to tell us the story.”

When we arrived at the house, there was no putting Morgan off any longer.  Timmy went to get our gifts to the family and Meredith, that he had hidden away, somewhere. He handed each of the others the gifts we had bought them and handed me and Tanner a package. Timmy sat down between Tanner and me. 

Dad grinned at Timmy, “Son, we usually have people open the gifts one at a time so we can see what they got and don’t have to look at them later.”

Timmy apologized, “Daddy, I’m sorry.  I didn’t know.  Morgan, you open your gift since you’re the youngest girl here.”

Morgan had no problem with that request and ripped open her package.  When she saw what was inside, her reaction was, “Hey guys, did you spend all your money on me?  Thanks for the neat gift.”

Lauren didn’t really react when she opened her gift.  She showed it to Meredith, who did react, “Lauren, you’re lucky.  The guys were thinking when they gave you this gift certificate.  You can buy whatever you want and need, instead of having to run around exchanging things that you don’t, like I have to do.  I think my parents deliberately buy me things they know I won’t like.”

When Merry opened her perfume set, she made Timmy’s day.  She had tears in her eyes  “Guys, I wasn’t expecting any gifts.  I tested this scent and liked it so much that I was going to buy some of it after Christmas, if I was lucky enough to get some money.”

Merry handed the scent card that had been included around so everyone could smell the scent and Mother commented, “That certainly is a nice light scent.  Merry, you’ll have all the boys chasing after you.”

Timmy looked up at me and I leaned down and whispered, “So far, we’re batting a thousand.”

Mother was next.  Timmy looked at Tanner and me and crossed his fingers.  Mother reacted as I thought she might, “Thank you, guys, these are absolutely beautiful.” She took out the earrings she was wearing put the new ones in and went to look in the mirror.  When she returned she kissed Tanner, Timmy and me.

When Dad opened his gifts, he stood, “I’ll be right back.”

Timmy looked at me and whispered, “Did we do something wrong?”

When Dad returned, he had on his new shirt and sweater, What do you think?   Do these make me look handsome?”

Timmy giggled, “Daddy, nothing can help you with that problem.”

When everyone stopped laughing, Timmy looked at Tanner and me, “You guys have to open your gifts from me, at the same time.”

We did, and we both received watches.  Timmy had us turn them over and mine was engrave ‘To Brian Xmas 2010 From Timmy‘.  Tanner’s was the same except the name.  Tanner and I both hugged Timmy.

We passed our watches so everyone could see them. 

Dad commented, “Guys, these watches are great.  They are equally as good as Rolex watches, but aren’t as expensive.”

Timmy added, “They’re waterproof and shock resistant,  They were made in Swissland, so I figured they would be good for you to wear when we go skiing.”

Before the gift opening was over, Timmy had received a skateboard from Morgan, a helmet from Lauren and a pair of knee pads from Merry.  Timmy thanked them, but he had a question, “When am I going to be able to use these?”

Morgan grinned, “Timmy, we’ll start practicing as soon as we get back from our ski trip.  I have all the things we need to practice so we can go to the skate board park when the weather is nice.  I was going to buy you ice skates, but I didn’t know what size you would need.”

Dad and Mother had a box for each of us with a picture of a ski outfit which said, “To Be Delivered When We Arrive At Chalet Lafontaine.”

I gave the guys their Fremont Letterman jackets and Timmy immediate put his on even though he had to be warm.  Tanner gave Timmy and me a Fremont Tiger warm up suit with a matching mock turtle neck with our initials on them.”

Timmy started to undress so he could put his new warm up suit and shirt on.  Dad reminded him, “Timmy, there are ladies present.  Shouldn’t you go change where they won‘t see you?”

Daddy, that’s so silly.  The ladies know that boys and girls are different.  Besides, I’m not going to take my briefs off.  They’ve probably seen what boys look like when they were babysitting.  I know Morgan has.”

How was anyone going to refute what he had said?  He not only had his pants off but he was standing there naked except for his briefs and his socks.  I’m surprised, because he had received some new briefs and socks from Santa.

When he had on his new shirt and warm up clothes with his letterman jacket and his helmet and his knee pads, he was standing on his skateboard, “Move over Superman and Spiderman, Skateboardman is here to protect you.”

Needless to say, that broke everyone up.

Timmy got serious, “I had a message from Santa and he said he hid some gifts in the back of the tree from someone called Secret Santa.  I almost forgot until Skateboardman reminded me.”

Timmy went to Merry and  Lauren and handed them a box.  It turned out they were boxes of stationary and note cards that said from the desk of Meredith or Lauren.  Lauren’s stationary had a picture of a Koala Bear sliding down a rainbow into a pot of gold. Merry’s showed a Kangaroo hopping in to a pot of honey.

Merry said, “What a neat present? But why did Lauren get a pot of gold and I only got one of honey?”

Timmy laughed, “You can’t eat gold but you can eat honey.  You’ll have to find a recipe that turns honey into money.  Maybe you could just change the H to an M and it will work.”

Timmy handed the last package to Morgan.  Morgan laughed, “I probably got some coal for being bad.”  She opened her package and she had a small pendant with ruby in the center with ray shooting out from it.  There was a long ray at the top, bottom and sides with small diamonds on the tips.

Timmy pointed out, “Morgan, you’re now center of you own universe, watching out for subjects to the north, south, east and west.  You’d better be good to your subjects or I'll come and take your magic necklace away.”

Morgan thanked Timmy, “I’ll try to be a wise ruler.   Please help me put it on so I can start telling people what to do?”

As soon the pendant was in place, Morgan stood and decreed, “All people who are not fixing lunch will make sure that the area is clean of all debris, and ready to put in the garbage.  Young Timmy, please bring some large garbage bags, so your brethren will get off their butts and do some work for a change.”

Mother stood, “O Center of the Universe, there is one gift that we forgot to distribute.  Brian, since you’re the only person who knows where it is, you need to go retrieve it.”

I went and got the bicycle from the utility closet.  When I took it into the living room, I parked it front of Timmy.  He looked at me, “Who’s that for?”

Lauren spotted a tag, The Center of the Universe will advise you who the wreck is for, as soon as she reads the tag which is written in some gibberish.”  She looked at the tab and blurted out.  This message is written in reverse.  Someone go get me a mirror, so I can read it.  It must have been written by those Cornie guys.”

Mother handed Morgan a handheld mirror and she read, “To Timothy from Grant and Ben.  Happy riding, little brother.  Merry Christmas.”

Timmy stood for the longest time looking at bicycle but finally went over to touch and examine it.  He pointed to the training wheels, How long do I need to have those little wheels on the bike?”

Dad answered, “For only as long as you will need them.  In your case, I’m guessing they’ll be off in a day or two.  You will need to wear your helmet for both skateboarding and bike riding.”

“I’m going to go put my bicycle beside Brian’s bike, so it’s not sitting in the living if we get company.”

Mother nodded, “Good idea.  The rest of us need to get rid of the wrapping and make the house look presentable if someone should stop by.  I’ll go find us some lunch.  As we were picking up the scraps of paper, Morgan went to get a container to store the reusable pieces of paper and decorations in.  When we finished, there were just a few gifts still in evidence and Timmy took the clothes that he'd shed, to the bedroom, and hung them up.  He did finally take off his letterman jacket and hung it up.  “It’s really warm.  I don’t think I need it in the house.”

As we were eating a light lunch, Timmy was picking at his food.  Dad asked, “Timmy, is something still bothering you?”

“I'm concerned about how much we spent on each other.  It was fun buying the gifts, but when you see them all together you start to remember how much we spent.  It’s scary to think that there are hundreds of boys and girls who probably didn’t get anything.”

Dad went and picked Timmy up, “Son, I want you to listen to me, and listen good.  You and your brothers did far more than 99% of the people in the world did to help others.  You must use your money wisely, or you won’t have any money left to help other people who need your help.  Now, eat, or you're going to be starving before dinnertime.”

Timmy started to pick at his food and I looked at him and he was almost falling asleep, “Timmy, go take a nap and you'll feel better.  You’ve had three pretty restless nights.”

Timmy asked, “Daddy and Mommy, I am tired, May I please be excused?

Mother nodded, “Yes, Timmy, you may be excused.  I’ll save your sandwich for when you wake up.”

After lunch, Dad cornered Tanner and me, “Guys, you really did go overboard with your presents.”

“Dad, are you upset with how much we spent.  The only things we knew we were going to buy when we went shopping were the girls’ gift certificates.  Timmy picked out the gifts for Meredith, you, Mother and the two guys.  We had no idea about our watches or the pendant for Morgan.  Timmy bought those on his own.”

 Dad asked, Why has Timmy been having so many restless nights”

“Dad, I was reading Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol and Timmy was seeing himself as Tiny Tim.  The meeting with the young boy who was on crutches at the home really has him concerned.”

Dad went to check on Timmy.  When he returned, he announced, “Timmy is resting peacefully, so he should be set for dinner.”

I looked at Tanner, “Come on, Jock Tailor, I feel a painting coming on.”

In fact, I had the starting of two paintings:  One of Tanner in his letterman’s jacket and one of Timmy, sprawled in his new warm-up suit.

There was a knock on the door, I opened it and Morgan was standing there, Brian and Tanner, Uncle Dan Tillison is downstairs with some visitors.  He wants to talk to you guys, especially Timmy and Merry.”

I was only guessing, “Something tells me that the visitors are the twins, Timmy and Meredith.”

Morgan yelled, “Bingo!” 

To be continued...

Editor's Notes:  I must admit that I saw that coming. I was wondering when it was going to happen, but I was certain that it would happen.  The two children did not seem very happy.  Why were they put in the home?  Were their parents in an accident?

There are actually a lot of questions that remain unanswered.

Perhaps Grandpa Nappy has some of the answers. Of course, once again, we will have to wait for the next chapter to find out more information. 

Darryl AKA The Radio Rancher

Posted: 11/12/10