Keeping Christmas well - Day 5

Pay it forward.

It was Christmas 1983. Dad had passed away from cancer five months previously. Our little family had also gone through a crisis that changed the course of our lives (for the better as it turns out, although we didn't know it at the time) and we didn't have very much money. I was kind of dreading Christmas because dad wouldn't be there and because we didn't have hardly any money to buy our little girls a few gifts.
Then two wonderful things happened. Someone played sub-for-Santa and left a box of food and a few toys on our doorstep. That gesture meant so much to us. We never knew who did it, but we appreciated their generosity and awareness in knowing that we were struggling.
The second thing that happened is that my sister Janet and her husband Dave came to town to visit. They took us to dinner at Marie Calendars and we enjoyed clam chowder and corn bread. How can I remember a dinner menu from almost 30 years ago? It's because of what happened next and the fact that what happened next is seared into my memory.
They gave us an envelope and told us to open it when we got home. When we did open it, we found a $100 dollar bill inside. We cried for joy! That $100 could as well have been $1000 because it meant so much to us. It meant we could buy our little girls a few gifts and that helped raise our spirits in ways you can't even imagine.
We went shopping and got the little dollies pictured below. We bought some paint and refurbished a doll cupboard that my dad had made years previously. We bought a few little dishes for the cupboard and we were set for Christmas!
We have tried to pay it forward over the years and it's been a pleasure to do so. That kind gesture from a beloved sister and her husband still warms my heart. They did not have a lot themselves and they had their own little children to provide for, but they gave to us nonetheless. That is the true spirit of Christmas.