“The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other.” Burton Hillis.


What Mr.Hillis doesn’t mention is the little girl sitting in a corner, shivering with the chills that go along with a fever.
Kindergarten
Walking into my grandmother’s house on Christmas was definitely a sight for sore eyes. Her house felt almost yellowed and old-fashioned, but good, like a true Christmas. The warm smiles and happiness radiated, daring you to try to resist the contagious spirit. The warm smell of eggnog and cinnamon, the perfume of mothers bickering over when the feast would be ready, was just the start of the love that was in the air. Going into the formal living room, a gargantuan, fresh-cut, green yeti towered over you. Some siblings were singing, and playing the piano. At the floor of the room, circled under and around the giant tree, were cousins and siblings galore, each glowing with the excitement that came along with Christmas morn. It was wonderful to be there and see our family not bickering (for the most part), and just enjoying the happiness and love.

I moved in, and gathered all of the presents addressed to me in a pile, which I carried present by present over to a little corner in the overflowing room. It was there that I sat, with a raging fever, as I opened my Christmas presents. I got many great things, unwrapping presents big, and small, short, and tall, but it was hard to be excited about anything. In a couple days I would surely be ecstatic, though.
This happened every year, by now I was used to it. A couple days before Christmas I would get really sick, and by a couple days after the holiday, I would be fine.
The aroma of stuffing, peppermint, and roast flowed into the room, and mouth-watered kids slowly got up to investigate. “What’s the point? I won’t eat it anyway,” I thought, “I’m never hungry when I’m sick.” So I sat there, by myself, thinking about what I would do when I got home. Sleep.
1st Grade
“Good morning class!” came the bouncing voice of my teacher, Mrs.Fishback, as she hung the last of the paper decorations that looked cut out by Edward Scissorhands. She said that today we had something different, a paper that we drew a picture on and filled out. Fun. She bounced down the rows, looking more like Mrs. Claus than my teacher. A piece of tinsel fell on my head; I flicked it, and looked up to see where it had fallen from. The ceiling was covered in the glittery stuff, with ornaments hanging here and there. I picked up my candy cane and stuck it in my mouth. All around the classroom, the kids were doing the same, because we had little Christmas cards on our desks, wishing us a happy winter break, and a candy cane was left to go along with it.

Mrs.Fishback leaned over my desk, and put a sheet of paper in front of me. It had a blank at the top, and writing lines underneath. At the very top, it said: Write Your Holiday Wish. I looked around, and most of the kids were already coloring, or done writing. I leaned over to see what my friends had written, Alyssa wrote about a bicycle, and Mari wrote about a Barbie. Sam wrote about Transformers, and Alex wrote about Pokémon. I thought about what I really wanted for Christmas. I wondered what Moses would have done, if God gave him those tablets and said, write what you want to happen. Would he have written the Ten Commandments, or a bicycle and transformers? I looked over my shoulder again, and Mari was already drawing the Barbie she wanted. It suddenly dawned on me what to write about. It was so simple, to enjoy Christmas. To let my family love me, laugh, hug, and participate in all of the festivities. To not get sick on Christmas.
I quickly wrote it down, and reached for the crayons. I colored a bright green Christmas tree, like the one at my Grammy’s, with lots of ornaments and presents under it. I drew little stick figures with happy faces all around it. I put another on with a sad face on the side, in the corner. That was me.
Everyone else had turned theirs in except for a couple of people, so I raised my hand, and Mrs.Fishback came over. She had a stack in her hand that read, basically the toys everyone wanted for Christmas, she looked at my paper and raised her eyes, but I just smiled. She turned away and walked over to the next kid raising his hand.

I was regretting that decision, to write to not get sick on my paper. But then, Christmas came and I wasn’t sick.
2nd Grade

I’m still not sick.
3rd Grade

I’ve yet to get sick on Christmas.
4th Grade

I’ve still yet to get sick.
5th Grade

Well, you get the idea. I never have gotten sick, on any Christmas since that day. I think that out there, God was listening, and he heard me asking for that wish, and sent an angel down to be with me, wherever I was, every Christmas. For me, every happy Christmas is a God-given miracle.
“The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other.” Burton Hillis.