I hope that you had a very good Christmas with family and friends!

Even though the day has passed, I have several more good Christmas writings which I would like to share with you this week.

Today's I received last year and I decided to save it until December this year. I thought it might have been a Karen's Korner then, but in looking back I can't find it. So this is either the first time.......or the second time I have included it in the "korner":

   The Giving Trees
 
      I was a single parent of four small children, working at a
 minimum-wage job.  Money was always tight, but we had a roof
 over our heads, food on the table, clothes on our backs and, if
 not a lot, always enough.  My kids told me that in those days
 they didn't know we were poor.  They just thought Mom was cheap. 
 I've always been glad about that.
      It was Christmas time, and although there wasn't money for
 a lot of gifts, we planned to celebrate with church and family,
 parties and friends, drives downtown to see the Christmas
 lights, special dinners, and by decorating our home.
      But the big excitement for the kids was the fun of
 Christmas shopping at the mall.  They talked and planned for
 weeks ahead of time, asking each other and their grandparents
 what they wanted for Christmas.  I dreaded it.  I had saved $120
 for presents to be shared by all five of us.
      The big day arrived and we started out early.  I gave each
 of the four kids a twenty dollar bill and reminded them to look
 for gifts about four dollars each.  Then everyone scattered.  We
 had two hours to shop; then we would meet back at the "Santa's
 workshop" display.
      Back in the car driving home, everyone was in high
 Christmas spirits, laughing and teasing each other with hints
 and clues about what they had bought. My younger daughter,
 Ginger, who was about eight years old, was unusually quiet.  I
 noted she had only one small, flat bag with her after her
 shopping spree.  I could see enough through the plastic bag to
 tell that she had bought candy bars - fifty-cent candy bars!  I
 was so angry. "What did you do with that twenty dollar bill I
 gave you?" I wanted to yell at her, but I didn't say anything
 until we got home.  I called her into my bedroom and closed the
 door, ready to be angry again when I asked her what she had done
 with the money.  This is what she told me:
      "I was looking around, thinking of what to buy, and I
 stopped to read the little cards on one of the Salvation Army's
 'Giving Trees.'  One of the cards was for a little girl four
 years old, and all she wanted for Christmas was a doll with
 clothes and a hairbrush.  So I took the card off the tree and
 bought the doll and the hairbrush for her and took it to the
 Salvation Army booth.
      "I only had enough money left to buy candy bars for us,"
 Ginger continued.  "But we have so much and she doesn't have
 anything."
      I never felt so rich as I did that day.
 
     by Kathleen Dixon