Rosy Glow – A Simple Gift

By

Andrew DeMarco

With the holiday season now over, I would like to tell you all about the best gift I received this past Christmas. Well, it was actually a gift I gave but what I got in return by giving this gift was immeasurable.

This story begins over 25 years ago when my niece Elaina and I would set up the train set and Christmas Village for the holidays. At that time, I gave her a simple toy. Well, this year while decorating the house for Christmas I came across this toy. Elaina is now engaged and before I go any further, I want to wish her and Scott all the love, health and happiness they can find. We eventually stopped putting up the trains but Elaina and I kept up the tradition of setting up the Christmas Village.  Now back to my story. I thought I would “re-gift” this gift that I gave her 25 years ago, so I wrapped it and put it in the bag with Elaina’s other presents.

On Christmas Day when it was Elaina’s turn to open her presents, she reached into the bag and as luck would have it this re-gift was the first one she pulled out. When she finally unwrapped it her expression was priceless and she exclaimed, “my train whistle.” As she clutched the whistle, all her other gifts did not seem to matter and then she began to blow it in Scott’s ear, for which he thanked me. Knowing my niece, she will probably use it any time she has to get Scott’s attention.

This was just the beginning because this re-gift just kept on giving. It opened a flood of memories and we all had those “do you remember moments” about the train set and all the past holidays. More importantly, it was also the memories Elaina had with her Pop-Pop and Nanny and the train set. I seemed to remember that my mother didn’t appreciate Elaina constantly blowing that whistle but my father enjoyed it because it was annoying my mother. The bottom line was that they really didn’t care because we all had fun and it meant that the family was together.

So, there you have it, a simple wooden toy given to my niece 25 years ago and now one I gave to her again years later led to the best present I received because of the memories that it brought to me and the rest of us. I know it filled us all with the Holiday Spirit and with an assist from some spiked eggnog all of which gave us that feeling that Cousin Bob would call that…..Rosy Glow.