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| James P. Wilcox |
Holiday Memories
Love, joy, gratitude, contentment, happiness, and even a
little sorrow are the emotions that surge through me when I think about my
favorite holiday memories. Although I
have enjoyed many, many wonderful birthdays, Thanksgivings, Fourth of July’s,
and Christmases, three dates stand out as my favorite holiday memories: March
8, 1975, December 24, 1993, and December 25, 2002. Each of these holiday dates holds a special
meaning for me, some for obvious reasons and some for not so obvious reasons.
The first date, March 8, 1975, was my third birthday
(yes, as much as I hate to admit it, I am that old). This is one of my earliest, and happiest,
memories of my childhood. Two things
about this day stand out in my memory: my birthday cake and a stuffed
turtle.
I distinctly remember that my birthday cake was a three
layer, chocolate cake, with chocolate frosting, decorated with marshmallow
men. My mom “created” the marshmallow
men out of, well you probably guessed it already, marshmallows and
toothpicks. She decorated their “faces”
with icing, used gum drops for their buttons, and made each one a little,
paper, cone hat. I don’t remember what
the cake tasted like, but I do remember being joyfully amazed by the marshmallow
men and I do remember that they were delicious.
The second thing that made this birthday so special was
the stuffed turtle. It was birthday
tradition in my house that we received one of our birthday presents right after
waking up on our birthday morning, while we had to wait for the rest of the
presents until after dinner. When I woke
up that morning, my mom gave me my present: a stuffed turtle (she had knitted
it herself). I was overjoyed with that
turtle and I remember sitting at the dining room table, eating my cereal (Cheerios,
if I remember correctly), and hugging that turtle to my neck. The turtle, which I appropriately named Turtley,
became my constant companion and best friend in no time flat. He was with my through the good time and the
bad of my childhood, “someone” I could talk to no matter what. He often served as my pillow at night and
someone to play with during the day. I
loved that turtle with all my heart and I am proud to say that I still have Turtley
and he has been “passed” down to my youngest son. Although my youngest son doesn’t seem to
appreciate the stuff turtle as much as I did as a boy, the stuffed turtle I
received for my third birthday is still a special part of my life.
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Christmas Eve of 1993 was a special night for me because
that was the night I asked my wife to marry me.
I was only 21 years-old and my wife and I had been dating for nearly
five years (aaahhhh, how sweet, we were high school sweethearts). I had planned for this night for months. We were both home from college (I went to the
University of Kansas while my wife attended Kansas State) and we had spent the
day together. That night, we attended
the 10:00 pm Christmas Mass with my wife’s parents. After mass, we ended up at her parent’s house
where the two of us traditionally exchanged our Christmas gifts. This night, December 24, 1993, I gave my wife
a glass rose, before I got down on one knee and presented her with a real
rose. I had placed the engagement ring
inside the rose and it took my wife a second or two to notice it. When she noticed the ring, I popped the
question “Will you marry me?” My wife
immediately burst into tears and threw her arms around me. After several minutes, I couldn’t take it any
longer and had to ask, “So, is that a yes?”
Needless to say, to did indeed say yes and made me the luckiest guy in
the world.
December 25, 2002 is another Christmas I will never
forget. This is the Christmas that I
spent with my wife at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri. This Christmas started off as any other,
regular old Christmas. My on woke my
wife up early in the morning, desperate to find out if Santa Claus had come (he
was only 20 months at the time, but he was still pretty desperate). If wife and I got up and we headed out to the
Christmas tree where my son proceeded to dive into his presents. After all the packages had been unwrapped,
toys and boxes played with, and breakfast was served, my son fell asleep from
pure exhaustion. We put him down for his
nap and then got ready to head over to my parents house. We spent the afternoon with my parents,
before heading over to my in-laws and spending a couple of hours with my wife’s
family. After we packed up all my son’s
new toys into the car, along with several unopened presents, we got him into
his red, one-piece footie pajamas and headed out. We still had one stop to make before we could
take my oldest home and put him to bed.
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As we made the 15 minute drive down to Children’s Mercy
Hospital, my wife and son were quite, my son dozing in his car seat and my wife
lost in her own thoughts. When we pulled
into the parking lot, my wife had tears on her cheeks. We finally found a spot (the parking lot was
amazingly full that evening), my wife commented that it was sad that so many
families had to spend Christmas at the hospital. My wife carried my son, while I grabbed the
unopened presents and we headed inside.
When we finally made it to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, NCIU, my
son had woken up and was ready to meet his new brother. We walked to the “room” at the end of the
hall and there he was, wrapped in a blanket, snuggled in warmer, with monitors
beeping, and tubes snaking into his tiny body.
You see, my youngest son was born on November 26, 2002,
16 weeks early (he was due on St. Patrick’s Day, but was born the Tuesday
before Thanksgiving, just to give you some perspective of how early he was),
weighing 1 pound 8 ounces. Needless to
say, he was very, very sick. He had
already made it through two surgeries by this time (he would have a total of
16) and was still in the NICU (he would spend a total of 5 months there).
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Although it may seem strange that this is one of my
favorite holiday memories, this Christmas was very special because for a couple
of reasons. First, my son had made it to
his first Christmas, which was a miracle unto itself, as the doctors and nurses
had prepared us for the worst from day one.
This was also a special Christmas because this was the first time that
my oldest son got to meet his little brother.
Although my oldest knew he had a brother, he just wasn’t old enough to
understand why his brother wasn’t at home with him. Seeing the look on his face when he peered
into the warmer the first time, well, that is something I will never
forget.
It was an amazing Christmas because when we were sitting
in my son’s room in the NICU, watching the nurses stuff my oldest full of
candy, as he padded up and down the hall in his red footie pajamas, all I could
feel was love. Love for both of my sons,
love for my wife, love for the nurses and for Children’s Mercy. As my wife and I unwrapped my youngest son’s
presents and talked to him and read him stories, before finally kissing him
good night, I was simply enveloped in a glow of peace and contentment like I
have never experience before. It was
during that visit that I knew everything was going to be all right. I am happy to say that everything did turn
out all right. Although my youngest gave
us several scares during his five months at Children’s Mercy and endured 16
surgeries, I am happy to say he is now a healthy young boy who recently
celebrated his 9th birthday.
Love, joy, gratitude, contentment, happiness, and even a
little sorrow, that just about sums up the holidays for me.
James P. Wilcox is the author of Sex, Lies, and the
Classroom, The M-16 Agenda, and the recently released Musings of
a Particular Bear: A Poetry Collection. James, a former newspaper
photographer and writer, is currently a high school teacher in the Kansas City
area, where he lives with his wife and three children. James is currently
working on his third novel, tentatively titled Sacrificing Tyreshia. To
find more information about James and his work, visit the official author
website at http://www.jamespwilcox.com
or email him at info@jamespwilcox.com.
His books are available through Amazon.com, B&N.com, and Unique
Books and ebook versions can be found on Kindle, Nook, Sony, Kobo, Apple and
Smashwords.com.
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