Christmas Torture!

The Simple Life
By Sheryl Simons


“The happier you are with the simple things, the easier it is to be happy.”

Simple Christmas

I can remember when I was a child, making a list of Christmas gifts I’d like, sometime around Thanksgiving. Mostly the items on the list came from the Sears toy catalog, mailed to homes in November. If you’ve never seen a Sears Toy Catalog, imagine the toy castle of the world where each page was filled with unimaginably magical items, such as toy electric guitars, games, and the electrical gadgets of the time, such as the game “Operation” where you had to remove a body part carefully with small tweezers without setting off the buzzer if you so much as touched the metal around the edges. One of my friends had that game, that’s how I know. Another friend had an Easy Bake oven, which baked very small cakes and cookies from the heat of a light bulb. I guess my parents thought that baking in our regular oven was practice enough.
One thing I can thank my parents for, (I think) was not making a big deal about Santa Clause. We never truly believed in Santa, which would have only meant one more let down when we realized the truth. Our family put the emphasis on Jesus amazing birth, and we still read the real Christmas story every year sandwiched between dinner and gifts.
The suspense of waiting all that time to see what would actually appear was awful. I knew nothing of Chinese torture, but Christmas torture couldn’t have been any less severe. However, as good as the gifts were, they were mostly gifts like sweaters, new pants – you know mostly things I needed rather than wanted with something fun like a beautiful pair of ice skates I received one year. My parents had a slightly different view of Christmas, than the children in our family. ‘Practical’ was the key word. Practical had a lot to do with not owing money after Christmas. (Smart idea, but not to a kid!)
‘Practical’ was a hated word to any child. Even if my parents had stumbled across a winning lottery ticket, (if it had existed back then) they wouldn’t have bought us everything we wanted, because it wouldn’t be “good for us”. “It wouldn’t be good for you” was a key phrase in our household, as it was in most families I knew at the time. If it sounds like a conspiracy, it was. No, my parents were definitely not alone in their parenting philosophies of what was “good” for us.
As a kid it seemed as if what was good for us, was an infinitely smaller range than what was not good for us. It was not good for us to be out after the streetlights came on, or to have a Saturday of freedom without chores. It was good for us to eat our vegetables, not be at a friend’s home unless a parent was home, and wait an hour after eating before swimming. I can actually remember swimming after only a half-hour after lunch once, and wondering if I might just die, and when the hour passed thinking I had cheated death. I was still alive! (My mother and aunt had probably gotten tired of us asking if an hour was up every five minutes, and took the risk of losing us all just to have some peace and quiet.) None of us even got stomach cramps. Not too long ago they debunked that theory for good. Good thing. Now my grandkids will be able to swim right after eating – but don’t go past your waist for an hour!
When my kids were little, I hate to admit, I became a part of the conspiracy – but with a new twist. It would save my kids the terrible torture of Christmas – I would hide the Christmas Catalog! (Hey, I couldn’t eliminate Christmas, but I did what I could!) I did it every year. Once when it came in the mail, they saw it before I could hide it. It mysteriously disappeared as soon as I could get my slippery little hands on it. I remember one of them looking all over for it, but I was a good hider of things. To this day, I don’t know if it helped to hide the catalog, but I did my best to spare them. There were still TV ads to torture them!

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Christmas is not in tinsel and lights and outward show. The secret lies in an inner glow. It's lighting a fire inside the heart. Good will and joy a vital part. It's higher thought and a greater plan. It's glorious dream in the soul of man. ~Wilfred A. Peterson


The word did not become a philosophy, a theory, or a concept to be discussed, debated, or pondered. But the word became a person to be followed, enjoyed, and loved. – Roy Lessin

SIMPLE CROCKPOT BROWNIE PUDDING1 pkg chocolate cake mix1 pkg instant chocolate pudding mix (4 serving size)1 pint sour cream¾ cup oil4 eggs1 cup water1 cup chocolate chips 1 cup pecans, toasted and choppedSpray crockpot. Mix all ingredients and pour into crockpot. Cook on low setting for 5 hours. Serve with vanilla ice cream.

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