Twas the Night Before and the Morning After.

From what I’ve been told, the real magic of Christmas usually happened between the time we kids went to bed and when we woke up in the morning. 

There was the night Steve Hernandez’ wife kicked him out of the house so he came over to ours for a beer or six. He showed up again on our doorstep Christmas morning bleary-eyed and reeking of the night before. We wondered why he was there and wished he would just go away and leave us to our Hot Wheels and Chatty Cathys. He sat on our couch in a haze as the smell of Incredible Edibles wafted through the air. Not a good smell when one is hungover, I’m sure.

One night as we were snuggled all tight in our beds, we heard clacking and clamoring in the living room. We peeked from the hallway to see Mom, Frank and their friends George and Midge playing with the toy hockey game Santa was supposedly giving to Mark. They were also having a pool tournament on our family’s new pool table. In the morning, hockey game didn’t work as smoothly as a new one should. The pool table was drink-stained and looked like something the Salvation Army had given us.

But the best night was the one when Sharon Chatwin came over for an after hours Christmas cocktail. Mom and Frank had sent us all to bed. Sharon, a single mom, had tucked in Ernie and Jeff. The parents were all exhausted from the day and needed to finally wind down.

As the grownups sat smoking around the dining room table, Jeff burst through the front door. “Mom!” he screamed, “Santa’s been here already! I unwrapped my presents and got a G.I. Joe, a wood burning set, some shirts...” Sharon turned as white as the new fallen snow. She was a hard-working nurse who barely scraped by to make a nice Christmas morning for her two boys. And if that weren’t enough, Jeff shouted that he had unwrapped Ernie’s gifts, too! And Mom’s! He proceeded to tell her what everyone in the family would receive the next morning.

Sharon knocked back her highball and grabbed Jeff by the ear. She hauled him off to their house next door and I’m sure, in true Chatwin form, gave him something that he really asked for—a great big can of Whoop-ass.