December 14, 2005
alchera
Project #2: Write a nonfiction story of a Christmas when things weren�t as they always had been...
Christmas during the strike wasn't the most pleasant of experiences. Jay had been on strike for months at that point. Our savings was gone. We were barely scraping by on my salary, only because my parents let us skip on rent (which we still owe them 2 years later).
We scraped up some money for a tree. Beyond that I didn't know what to do. No presents. At all. I couldn't even make anything, as I didn't have the money to buy any materials.
My boss at work gave me $1,000. This was amazing. This saved Christmas. It bought Christmas dinner fixings, and Christmas cookie fixings, and some gifts. We were recipients of a toy drive for the strike workers. I was was a recipient of charity. This was very difficult for my pride to swallow, so I can't even imagine how Jay felt. But it put toys under the tree. An online friend sent toys for the kids, which left me speechless and grateful.
The Christmas spirit was NOT in me that year. Probably the first year ever that I was dreading Christmas and wished we could just skip it. But the kids had a wonderful Christmas due to the charity and giving of others.
... not to mention the tree fell down. Twice.
It was different than all the others, but we made it out to the other side thankful to have each other.
