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This year, our retired next door neighbor has almost single-handedly built and furnished a "Hispanic Center" for the working poor, immigrant community here in our small southern town.
He asked me and my partner for our help today. Our task? Assembling toys! Yep, we had to test the donated toys to make sure they worked properly, were safe, and had fresh batteries (if you can't afford toys, batteries are also likely to be too expensive). As soon as the toy was workable, it HAD to be tested and that was the very best part. We had race cars and Tonka toys and dolls and stuffed animals, and Play-N-Say, and everything you can imagine. There was even a Groucho Marx glasses with nose set!
Some of the games were kind of ragged and held together by tape(cardboard boxes don't last forever) but I asked myself, when I was a kid, would I have prefer used boardgames or no boardgames. Guess which option won. We did check to make sure that all pieces needed to play were still included.
Our Christmas was putting toys together today. Its not about food, gifts, trees, football or any of that crap. Its about kids, excited beyond belief, ready to PEE themselves and, while we won't be there when they actually experience the nirvana that is Christmas morning, we'll know.
Tomorrow, my partner leaves to spend a week taking care of his elderly mother. Bitter cold weather is headed my way, and I'm getting ready to hunker down. But its okay. Christmas was nice, really nice, one of the very best. Giving is the very best gift.
Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Joyous Solstice, Special Kwanzaa, Wonderful Winter Holidays and a Festive Festivus to all of you from our household to yours...
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