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The Best Christmas of My Life
My life is very different now from what it was for most of my years on the planet. I grew up very poor, married young, and settled into a life that was joyous and satisfying. It was also void of most material things and that became my reality. But one Christmas was destined to become the best of my life.
It was the 23rd of December, 1973 and I was on my winter vacation from my freshman year of college at the University of Florida in Gainesville. My husband and I had just found out that we wouldn’t have my two stepkids, ages four and six for Christmas that year. We were a part of a custody battle with his parents, whom had been granted temporary custody after the childrens’ mother had decided she did not wish to raise them. It was all tied up in the courts, with the attorneys the only ones to benefit so far.
This was long before joint custody was a common phrase, and men were seldom granted custody of young children, even if they had remarried. So when Bob’s father called to tell us the children would be staying with them that Christmas, and that they would prefer if we waited until after the first of the year to come to visit we were devastated.
There were only four presents under the Christmas tree in our small apartment and I can remember quietly walking into the living room and carefully retrieving the two that were from Santa to Matthew…
