Christmas Suprise

On Christmas day, while I was waiting for my dad to pick me up to go to my sister's place, I went to check my mail. Hanging from my mailbox was this Christmas ornament tin.



Taped to the tin was an empty envelope with my name written on it. I took it off the mailbox and shook it. "Sounds like candy in there," I thought. "Probably Hershey's Kisses." I dropped the ornament in my bag of gifts and waited for my ride.

"Well, I could use a little chocolate treat, " I thought and fished the ornament out. I worked the tin open looking forward to the candy I knew must be in there. When I got the tin open, this is what I found.



"There's money in here," I said out loud and closed the tin back up. I looked at the envelope that was taped to the front. I was my name though it was written in a handwriting I didn't recognize. The envelope itself was empty. I open the tin back up, thinking maybe I just imagined it. Nope, the money was still there - 4 twenties and 2 tens. There was no card in the tin.

Someone gave me a Christmas gift but I don't know who it is from. I'd like to say thank you, but I don't know who to thank. I'm not even sure if I should accept a gift like this. (The money, not the candy - I'm keeping the candy.)

So, to the Santa who left it, thank you for the gift.

Christmas 1991

In December 1991 I pulled out the Christmas decorations. That may not seem like such a strange thing to do in December, but it was unusual for that year. I June of 1991 my mother passed away and I wasn't sure how Christmas would go that year. My mother always made a big production of Christmas - baking cookies (that she thought were hidden from us), making my Dad put up the tree and lights, cooking and shopping. But this year, none of that would happen unless someone else did it. I left the cookie baking to my sister, who is better at it than me, and pulled out the tree and decorations.

In one of the boxes I found a small white box with a snowflake design on it. When I opened it I found an envelope with "1990" written on it in my mother's handwriting. (My mother was left-handed, but one would never know from her handwriting.)I took out the envelope and found another marked "1989", then another marked "1988", then another... Inside those envelopes where Christmas cards; the card the Carpenter family sent out each year from 1954 to 1990.

I eventually ended up with that box of cards (along with other special items from the family home) when my Dad sold the house. I always thought it would be nice to preserve these electronically, but I wasn't sure how and didn't have the time.

This year I do have the time so I thought I'd create a video of the cards. This would not be easy. I don't have the most up-to-date software on my computer. I don't have Adobe Flash which would be the first choice for creating an electronic video. I have a seven year old version of Adobe Photoshop (Photoshop CS, no numbers after it), an even older version of Adobe Illustrator (version 7), and a four year old version of Camtasia Studio (version 3).

Its taking a lot of time, good thing I started early, but here is a beginning iteration. This is a low-resolution version as Blogger will not allow the high-resolution version. (Too big.)