Vivid Christmas memories
Listening to a young child I know rattling off all the things she is having for Christmas, and believe me the list was endless and very expensive.

I went back to one of the most enjoyable Christmas's I had. Arriving home from Mass on Christmas day, my mam gave me a parcel to unwrap. I had never had anything in a parcel before, so you can imagine it was ripped open with haste. It contained the book A Christmas Carol and a box of Dairy Milk Chocolate (only one layer).
I asked mam could she light a fire in the Parlour, so I could read my book in peace while she cooked dinner. She said she would: She took a shovel of fire from the already glowing fire in the living room, and shouting for us all to keep out of the way. Hurried from one room to the other, with the shovel full of hot embers billowing a cloud of smoke and acrid smell following her, put it in the fireplace in the parlour.

I was in there quick, comfy in the old armchair with book and chocolates. The story of the poor family and old scrooge kept me in a world of my own, every so often I placed a chocolate in my mouth making it last till it melted away.

This must have been about 64 years ago, but that Christmas day memory is as vivid today as then.

I wonder in 64 years time will my friends little girl remember unwrapping any of her many gifts and even what one of them contained.
Marie Pandolfo