Saturday, December 17, 2005

A Gift for Mrs. Claus

Santa was looking for the perfect gift for his wife. He was running out of time and had no ideas what to give her. After last year, Mrs. Claus let him know that his gifts were lacking and she would not tolerate it any more. He was Santa Claus after all. He could certainly come up with a decent gift for his wife.

Over the years, Mrs. Claus had gotten a variety of misfit toys and cast offs for Christmas. Santa was always so busy and she always understood and laughed it off. He could not let her down again this year. Heaven forbid, she might leave him. The North Pole could get might cold without a woman to warm your bed!

The elves tried to help Santa with his dilemma, but were failing as miserably as he was in finding the perfect gift. He wanted this to be special. He wanted it to be memorable. He wanted it to be perfect. Santa locked himself in his study and gave the problem some serious thought. He made some notes, but nothing was good enough for his wife. He just knew he was going to let her down again. He started his apology:

I don't have the perfect gift for you again.
I cannot give you anything that makes me
as happy as you have made me over the years.
I offer this to you as my humble apology.
You deserve more than I can give, always have.
You make my life Christmas. You are my gift.


Shaking his head, Santa folded his apology neatly and placed it in a small box. He wrapped the box and put a pretty red bow on top of it. He would keep looking for that perfect gift, but if he failed, he had an offering. As an after-thought, Santa made a little card and drew a rose on the front of it. He added the traditional to and from lines and signed the card with a flourish. And then, he had an idea.

Roses! Mrs. Claus loved roses! Santa couldn't remember when the last time he had given his wife flowers. That would be a great gift for her. And...maybe some perfume that smelled like roses would be good too. The flowers would die quickly, but she could remember how they smelled with the perfume. Now all he had to do was sneak away to get these gifts.

Christmas morning came and Santa was very tired. There seemed to be more children this year and he was getting older, of course. He sat in his chair and waited for his wife to join him in front of the fire. As tired as he was, he was looking forward to exchanging gifts with his wife. He had nothing to be ashamed of this year. He had found the perfect gift.

Mrs. Claus presented her gift to Santa first. She had spent several weeks making him a new suit. Red velvet was getting harder and harder to find. She was quite pleased with her handiwork and even Santa liked the new look. He would try it on later in the day. Santa only hesitated for a moment before he reached behind the tree and brought out a bundle for Mrs. Claus to unwrap.

"Roses! Oh, honey, thank you! They're beautiful!" Mrs. Claus was only a little puzzled when he handed her a second package. "Perfume! I'm impressed, thank you, dear." She gave him a peck on the cheek.

Santa didn't realize it, but he had been holding his breathe. He let it out slowly and settled deeper in his chair. It was a good day. However, Mrs. Claus was still looking a little puzzled. "Dear? Don't you have something else for me?"

Santa shook his head. Mrs. Claus ran to the study and returned with the little gift that Santa had forgotten about. Once he got the idea about the flowers and the perfume, he tucked it into the corner of the desk and forgot about it. "What about this?"

Santa shook his head again, "Oh, that's nothing."

"Well, can I open it? I found it when I was dusting the study. I'm sorry if I ruined the surprise." Although the gift was no longer relevant, he allowed her to satisfy her curiosity.

The next thing he knew, Mrs. Claus had tears streaming down her face. She hugged Santa as if she would never let him go. "You wrote this?"

Santa was looking sheepish and admitted his folly. "This is the best gift you have ever given me. I love you, Santa Claus."

1 Comments:

Blogger Billy Jones said...

Ho, ho, ho! Great story.

Sunday, December 18, 2005  

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