Every summer in recent years, I’ve asked my 8th graders for ideas to help write a short creative story in this space. They give me the first and last lines of a story, and it’s my job to fill in the middle. This gives me a break from pontificating and allows me to flex my creative muscles. I hope you enjoy these stories as much as I enjoy writing them! This week’s inspiration comes from Kaitlyn Dobberstein.
One million dollars later, I bought all the Christmas decorations. Wait, you’re thinking, later? What happened to get to a point where you would possibly conceive of spending a million bucks on Christmas stuff? Okay, I’ll back up; I was just so excited to get to the Christmas part!
Never mind, I’m going to start with Christmas anyway! I’ve always loved Christmas, from the time I was a little girl sitting in church and thinking about both Jesus being born and Santa Claus dropping presents off at our house. Our cookies and milk were always gone, Christmas music was always playing, and I always squealed in delight to see a big pile of presents.
As I became a teenager, I was more and more obsessed with everything Christmas. I’d wish people a merry Christmas, even if it was May. I’d write the number of days until Christmas on my teacher’s board starting in January. I kept begging my parents to buy more decorations for our place and to just leave them up all year. There was finally a firm no to that last one.
The idea of Christmas all the time was abstruse to most of the people who knew me. Still, they nodded and smiled, though I’m sure they just shook their heads later on. It didn’t matter to me; I loved Christmas and wanted to share my joy with everyone!
I had a real problem when I left for college. My dorm room was really small, and I shared it with someone who enjoyed the holidays, but who wasn’t near my level. Still, she was understanding when I draped our dorm room in tinsel and lights and set a tree up on a spare patch of carpet. I had grabbed some decorations from my parents’ stash when I was home at Thanksgiving but realized I’d have to start funding my desire for more Christmas decorations.
I worked multiple jobs through college, both to fund my education and my Christmas habit. One of my jobs was waitressing, and I discovered I really enjoyed doing that. There were some long shifts, but I’ve never had a problem smiling, and that always gained me some good tips.
When I finished college, I got a teaching job right away. I knew that teaching in a public school might keep me from sharing my love of Christmas with my students, so I found a job in a private Christian school, where that was encouraged.
Between what my parents had let me “borrow” over the years and spending parts of my first checks, I bought enough Christmas items to fill my classroom and my apartment. My young students were filled with glee when they came into class after Thanksgiving and found lights and a tree and a blow-up Santa and much more in my room. We spent all of Advent preparing for the arrival of Jesus on Christmas Day.
However, as I was learning, a beginning teacher, especially at a private school, didn’t make a huge salary. I got by fine, but my need to get more Christmas items was interfering with going at least a week without having to eat ramen noodles. I decided I needed to start waitressing again.
I worked weekends at a Perkins near my apartment. It made life a little tougher when I didn’t have the full weekends to relax and plan for the next week at school. Still, I figured it was all worth it. When summer arrived, I said I’d take even more shifts.
Things were going well, and I was making enough to buy more things for my Christmas habit. I started thinking about saving for a down payment on a house to give myself more room to decorate. Just as I was trying to solve that conundrum, fate walked into the Perkins.
I’d had to work a longer shift because someone didn’t show up on a Saturday. I was nearing my twelfth hour on my feet when I waited on two older ladies who were smiling and pleasant. I was dead on my feet but kept smiling and being polite, even when one of the ladies had to send back a plate that was missing something she’d ordered.
When I was waiting for that new plate by the kitchen, I leaned against the wall and sighed. “I can do this,” I told myself. I got the new plate and delivered it, apologizing for the mistake.
When the women seemed done, I brought the bill. I thanked them again and cleared their plates.
Imagine my surprise, as I finally finished my shift ten minutes later, when the manager called me into his office. He had a handwritten note and a receipt and handed them to me. The note read, “Thank you for the fabulous service. We asked your manager about you and he said you were going above and beyond today. Your politeness is rare these days, so we want to go above and beyond for you. Enjoy your tip!” It was signed by Christy and Alice Walton. Why did those names sound familiar?
I glanced at the receipt. Under tip, it read $1,000,000. I squealed as I remembered that the Waltons were heirs to the Walmart fortune.
It wasn’t long before I had a house and more Christmas decorations than you could imagine. They stayed up all year, both in my house and in my classroom. And that’s how I made Christmas year-round!
Word of the Week: This week’s word is abstruse, which means hard to understand, as in, “Most people find babies quite abstruse when they attempt to communicate.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!