Pure, white snow fluttered down and formed a blanket of sparkling flakes over everything on Christmas morning. The front yard seemed as if it was a melting ground for sweet, fluffy marshmallows. The garden, following the sidewalk to the front door, was forming crystallized tulips and sugar-coated leaves. Everything was falling into place, as it should, this holiday.
“Alright, everything is set out, time to go wake up mom and dad”, Tommy muttered under his breath to himself. Tommy was 10 years of age, he had short, brown hair and bright, blue eyes. His mom always called him Mr. Guapo. As you can imagine, guapo was Spanish for good-looking.
Tommy ran u the stairs, flung open the door to his parents’ bedroom and shouted, “Mom! Dad! Merry Christmas! Its time to open gifts, last one down gets to hand them out, lets go!” His parents weren’t the most motivational of their generation. They both worked five days per week with seven hour shifts.
“Coming son”, said Mr. Brighton. “Honey, I think it’d be best for us all if we got moving.”
And having no argument, Mrs. Brighton agreed.
Mr. Brighton was the last member of the family to sit down for presents so he ended up playing the role of “Mr. Santa” for the morning. Even though they had, and could afford, only one gift for each person it was a tradition that they couldn’t break with Tommy.
“The first gift of Christmas goes to you Tommy, love mom and dad.”, and he proceeded to handing Tommy his present.
Tommy tore apart the square-shaped box that was wrapped in a golden gate, yellow wrapping paper. He held the box close to his ear and gave it a couple shakes, he could hear the faint sound of a chime from within. he couldn’t wait to see what it was, he took both sides of the box in his firm grip and ripped it open. Out of the box flew a small, silver bell, no larger than the size of a golf ball. The silver bell glanced off the sofa nearby and made a sharp “TING” as it landed onto the floor in front of him.
“What’s so special about this silver bell?”, Tommy asked his parents wile trying to show as much thankfulness for his gift as he could.
“well that silver bell you got there Tommy, well it once belonged to one of Santa’s reindeer”, his father replied knowing that it wasn’t true, but he knew it would cheer Tommy up after seeing his reaction upon opening his present.
“How did you get it?” Tommy asked with a suspicious gesture.
“Santa gave it to us and told us to wrap it up as your present this year. He said you were special and wanted this silver bell to always remind you of Christmas. And if it is in your possession when rung, let it remind others too that there is always hope” replied his mother, she didn’t like being dragged into this lie, but as long as it made Tommy happy she felt okay.
“Wow, I can’t believe Santa would do that for me, or that he thought I was special! You know what mom and dad?”
“what sweety?” They both replied with, sounding interested to hear what Tommy had to say.
“This has been probably one of the best Christmas’s any family could dream of. I wish every Christmas could be like this one”, and with that being said Tommy held the silver bell high above his head and rang it.