It was a dark, cold night. The old Valiant car kept on going, occasionally coughing but moving forward none-the-less. Mom and Dad's faces were softly lit from the white light of the radio, tuned in to CJOB. Christmas carols were coming forth and instead of singing along, Mom and Dad were caught up in some kind of disagreement. Again. I looked at my little brother beside me and reached out to hold his hand.
"Henry, we've talked about this enough. We'll do it this way and that's final," she said.
"Mary, you know ... every year we are heading out and every year it ends up being the same thing."
"I don't want to talk about it anymore," she said and turned her face to the darkness outside.
"Daddy?" I whispered after a minute of silence.
"Yes?"
"Could you please turn the radio up? I think they're talking about Santa," I tried to smile.
He reached over and turned up the volume slightly. Sure enough, it was just in time to hear the news break from NORAD!
I turned to my brother. "Can you see Santa out your window?" I asked. I wanted to get his mind off of the fight that was going on. I didn't know much about adult things, but I did know that people shouldn't be fighting on Christmas Eve.
"I don't think so," he said in his little voice. "Becky?" he asked.
"Keep looking!" I said.
"Becky, what if we're not at home when Santa comes here? What if we're still in this car going to Grandma and Grandpa's?" he asked.
"I'm sure Santa has a way of finding all the good children tonight," my dad joined in.
"Henry, why do you insist on spreading those stories?" Mom piped in.
"Mary, just leave it, ok? We're almost at your parents and they don't need to know about this."
At that point, we turned into a huge farmyard, full of cars. The old two-storey farmhouse was ablaze with lights and in the front window, you could see the Christmas tree, twinkling its welcome.
I looked frantically over the cars ... yes, there it was! the dark Mercedes! She was here already!
I jumped out of the car and ran towards the door. I could hear my brother crunching over the snow behind me. As I reached the door, it flew open and there stood my Aunt, with a huge smile on her face and her arms open wide to catch my brother and me as we flew into her hug. She smelled like Christmas cookies! For all the problems in the car on the way up, I was glad to be here with my Aunt at Christmas again.
"Merry Christmas and welcome! Come in, come in! There's lots of food and lots of warmth - so glad you could make it!" she laughed as she hugged us.
I looked up and there were big snowflakes falling from the heavens ... the world around was a twinkling masterpiece! It really was Christmas!
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