I’m down to the wire here friends! This 30 day blog challenge has taken me through a fun stroll down memory lane. I hope as you’ve read some of my posts, that maybe this could help get your own conversation started about your own unique memories.

Day 29 Question 29: What particular Christmas memory do you remember most fondly?

Answer: I’m posting another excerpt from my book AS CLEAR AS CLAIRE GETS as my answer for today:

That Christmas Eve something amazing happened; we were watching TV while Tio worked a double shift in the ER. The whole night was dragging on because this was very different from the festive holidays we were all used to. In past years, the house was always filled with guests, now it was just the four of us. I was not interested in the TV at all, I would glance up at the cuckoo clock hanging by the banister, and it stood still it seemed. Suddenly at midnight when the cuckoo came out to announce the hour, the doorbell rang. I sprang up from the couch and I ran as fast as I could to see who might be at the door at this late hour. Once I opened the door, Tio was standing there smiling with a box of Dunkin’ Donuts  in his hands. I threw my arms around him because I was so glad to see him and he hugged me back tenderly. Suddenly he realized what he was doing as he stiffened up quickly and the moment vanished but not from my heart.

As he settled in, he explained to all of us that he had managed to get another doctor to cover his shift so he could come be with us. This was an isolated incident where he had been affectionate with me and it still makes me smile today. It told me back then and even now that somewhere in that stony heart of his, there is a place for me. Tiny though it may seem, that place is there because he let me see it for a second.