The Christmas That Amlost Was

One of our favorite Christmas traditions in our home…our habitat.. is to write everyone’s name on a separate sheet of paper and throw them in a hat. On Thanksgiving the hat is shaken then passed around to everyone on the floor… who pick the name of the person they’ll be buying a present for. It’s a wonderful tradition born out of the desire to teach the meaning of giving and the need for thrift… as everyone only buys one present and everyone receives only one gift. I’ve been known in my family to do a little magic and some pranks…this is true… and this story is about the one Christmas I deftly combined the two. Since it’s supposed to be a secret…the name you are assigned… in the hat we passed around one Thanksgiving all the names inside it…were mine! You see I was in charge of writing the names and passing the hat around too… which made this prank and unexpected magic trick easy for me to do. The hat was passed…the names were picked…my plan was working beautifully… each family member opened their paper, read the name…and secretly smiled at me. I would have eventually told the truth that night…at least that’s the story I like to tell… but I never got the chance because it seems the members of my family can’t keep a secret very well. I wasn’t there to hear their conversations…which, in retrospect, I am glad… when Deborah found out she had me… and all our children.. found out that they had Dad. I had another hat ready…which, of course, we passed around then… and I smiled wondering if my children…would ever trust me again… Yesterday as is our tradition we passed the hat… it went smoothly…as it always does And I smiled…as I always do… thinking about…. the Christmas that almost was.