OUR FIRST CHRISTMAS - 1986

It's not Christmas yet, but we're getting there. 

And as FB likes to do, it throws up photos and memories unexpectedly, and so came up this photo of Timmy dated December 24, 1986. 

Not sure why he doesn't have a shirt on. It was cold there. So it must have been inside. Or maybe it's just dated wrong.

But anyway, the pic and the date reminds me of a short story about our "first Christmas." 

We were pretty darn broke in those days. We had moved to St. Augustine, FL, a few months earlier where I taught at a Catholic high school and we were surviving on a bare minimum. 

Leone had taken a job at local bakery and somehow we pieced life together with our young son who we affectionally called "Timultaneous" after the the famed creation of Paul Keens Douglas, a fantastic Trinidadian comedian and storyteller. 

Well, Christmas Eve came along and we couldn't afford a Christmas tree, not even a fake one. So I cut down a Christmas tree-looking little fir growing in my neighbor's yard and rustled it into our pathetic little duplex. 

I don't think we had money for any lights - just enough for tinsel and tin foil to cover the window so our neighbor couldn't see where his tree went.

I know I have pics of that little tree somewhere, but can't find them. So you'll just have to believe me.

Merry early Christmas :)