I'll be home for Christmas

For the first time in many years, my home will be complete at Christmas. In addition to my wonderful wife Pat, all four of my kids, three spouses and all 10 of my grandkids will be here.

The kids and grandkids were scheduled to arrive sometime Monday, mostly at evening time. If they were early enough, the games began.

If not, then today is game day all day. We'll play while Christmas dinner is cooking.

I've been wondering how the house is going to look these days. Surely some adult will trip over, or at least hurt a foot on, a toy. With nine of the grand kids still at toy age, there are sure to be toys all over the floor.

If that's not enough, imagine the mess of people. There will be 19 of us sharing a three-bedroom home with one bathroom. I expect bodies all over the living room and TV room floors at night.

Christmas morning will be exciting. I've talked with Santa, and he guarantees there will be no gifts to open tonight. He plans to arrive after midnight. So we will have a traditional Christmas morning.

This all reminds me of Christmases long ago, when it was all about getting together. Our family often celebrated with the family of Uncle Aurelio and Aunt Carmen (mom's sister) Herrera.

One particular year, probably 1954, was one I've never forgotten. It was nearly traumatic back then.

Christmas Eve we did the usual. It was all able hands on deck for the preparing and cooking of tamales. The kitchen was like a little factory.

My boy cousins and I missed out on that because, well, we were boys. And we were at the tail end of the families. I was only nine.

Mostly we played. In the dirt. And our mothers yelled at us.

At a reasonable hour, maybe 8 p.m. (there was no TV then), dad and uncle Aurelio said it was time for bed. We protested. We were too excited to sleep.

"Santa Claus won't come until after everybody is asleep," dad said.

He had us. Slowly that old 1900 two-story white farm house near Outlook quieted and darkened. And we did fall asleep.

My brothers, sisters, cousins and I were laid out across a barracks bay type of area on the second floor. Our parents and the oldest cousins slept downstairs. It was a mess of people.

I was so excited that I woke up not long after midnight. All of the kids around me were zonked. So I quietly got up, tip-toed across the room and down the stairs to see if Santa had arrived.

I was barely down the stairs a bit when I got the shock of my then short life. Santa had not come, but there in the dim light of the Christmas Tree were two male figures, shaped a lot like Uncle Aurelio and dad, putting things under the tree.

I scurried back upstairs and got back under my blanket. I didn't want to believe what I had seen. After all, it could have been that Santa was late that night and needed help.

I kept everything I had seen to myself and got up excitedly with the rest of the kids at about daybreak. We rushed downstairs to find a row of Tonka type trucks for the boys with a doll for every girl in the bed of each truck.

Everything was okay. Santa had come. Poor farm workers like Uncle Aurelio and dad couldn't have paid for all of those toys.