JINGLE BELLS

We loved Oregon Christmases. We would go out in the woods, pick out the perfect tree, cut in down, tie it to the top of the car and bring it home for the decorating ritual. Remember the scene in "Christmas Vacation" when the Griswald's find the perfect tree? That was also the Roderick's tree, minus the roots.

Kelsey, Addison and Shae were very excited this year, 1993, because Grammy and Grandad had come to spend the holidays with us. We dressed in our finest and went to our church's Christmas Eve service and followed that event with dinner at home by the fire. The girls were very anxious about Santa Claus, and yes, we still do the man in red, and they were extremely hard to get settled down and into bed.

Finally, Grandad went into their bedroom and had a little talk with them. He told them that if they were very still they might be able to hear Santa and his sleigh as it landed on the neighbor's roof. They already understood that Santa could not come to their house until they were sound asleep. He tip toed out the their room, to add to the drama.

Grandad had rigged up some jingle bells outside the kids room, without their knowledge of course. He very quietly stole out the back door and stood by their window and gently shook the bells randomly, loud enough for the girls to hear. Very quickly he made his way back into the house in time to see the girls come running out of their room convinced Santa was almost here. Grandad hussled them back to bed with another caution to go to sleep and we did not hear a sound from them the rest of the night.

The next morning, after all the excitment, the girls found the jingle bells that Santa had dropped off the roof on Christmas Eve.