Keep Smiling!

OK, I booked my plane tickets to fly to St.Louis for Christmas. With the price of the tix, and the price of the pet-sitter, it's going to cost an arm and a leg ... c'est la vie. I made promises that I'd be there this year, I've missed so many family holidays in the past and spent them alone... I've gotta "get in to the spirit" this year. I was home for Christmas year-before-last and was actually able to sleep Christmas Eve ... for the first time in dozens of years ... hopefully I'll have a repeat experience.

We were robbed on Christmas Eve when I was a kid. I was 10 or 11. We were at church, and I was in a play ... "the little bell that wouldnt stop ringing". My character was 'Baby Bell'. I dont remember the plot, probably something about making a joyful noise unto the lord. It went well, it was a snowy white christmas, everyone was full of holiday cheer after church. We got home and the front door was ajar .. I had my costume and teddy bear (I got to carry Cobby, my bear, as a prop) in a brown paper bag. As we trekked into the living room, I remember looking around and thinking "Why did Mom and Dad choose to redecorate right before coming to church?" because things were a mess. I was young and naive and the mess hadnt processed as Evilness. I made it to my bedroom door and was pondering why my Dad's briefcase was sitting on my pillow, minus my pillow case, on my bedroom doorway floor, when I heard my Mom exclaim in a voice that was too loud and too scared "My silver! Oh my god, David, we've been robbed!!" I dropped the brown paper bag next to the briefcase and pillow, and got chills from head to toe that took HOURS to get rid of.

Looking around from where I stood, I remember seeing in to my brother's room - he similarly had a stripped pillow in his doorway (they stole our pillowcases to carry stuff) and his dresser drawers had been gone thru and his room was messed up.

They took presents from under the tree, silver, jewelry, binoculars, cameras, tv, clocks, etc,....

So anyway ... I remember just about every little detail about that night. How askew everything was. But mostly, I remember how invaded the house felt. There had been strangers in the house with nothing but evil intent on their minds. I've never been able to sleep on Christmas Eve since. I have to watch every car that drives by, I have to try and watch all of the neighbors houses for any sign of robbery, I listen for any unusual noise even knowing what the chances are that anything would happen while we're home. Heaven forbid we should go out on Christmas Eve! I cant enter the house until everyone else has gone in, and I'm sure it's "all clear" (tho I just stall ... I dont tell anyone that's why I'm holding back).

All they took from me was my Snoopy pillowcase, even tho I had almost 100 dollars in a bank under my bed (babysitting money that I'd been saving) because they figured why go through a kid's room ... but they stole my sense of security.