Merry Christmas Harriet (Original)
On the first of December – on the same day the Mayor decorated the town –. Harriet and her husband would hike out real early in the morning, pick a perfect East Coast pine, and cut it down for their Christmas tree. They would then spend the rest of that day decorating it, and stringing the lights up on the outside the house.
Following this would come a drive downtown together. They always enjoyed seeing the decorating job the rest of the townspeople had done. Then, the two of them would walk to Elm Street and listen to the church bells play Christmas carols. Their favorite song had always been “Oh holy night”. Whenever the bells played it, they always sang along. Sometimes, they would stay longer, just so they could hear it again.
Christmas morning was the best time of all. Before Harriet ever awoke, Philip would be up and about lighting all the Christmas decorations and preparing a fine breakfast feast. It always made her face glow when she came walking down, first thing in the morning, to the aroma of eggs Benedict and the sparkling lights on the tree. No matter how many times he did it, Philip always surprised Harriet. After she came downstairs, and the gifts had been opened they would sit by the fire just visiting and sharing the glow of the day. It was always so blissfully quiet with just the two of them there. Church services began at 12 o’clock sharp, and usually lasted until two o’clock. Later in the afternoon, they would enjoy a brisk walk through the fresh powder before preparing the Christmas feast and welcoming their holiday guests. Yes, life was complete for Harriet and Philip, complete that is except for one important missing element.
You see, if you had gone to the Magillicuddy’s for Christmas back then, you would not heard the laughter of children, or the patter of little feet running to the gifts under the tree. It was usually pretty quiet, too quiet in fact. This was because there had never been any children at the Magillicuddy’s.
That never bothered Harriet though; she always knew that someday there would be. After all, they were both young and healthy. The doctor had told them there was no reason on earth why they couldn’t have children of their own. All they had to do was just keep on trying.
Harriet wasn’t partial to boys or girls, either would be fine – or even both. She’d always wanted six children, her husband had always wanted five. They loved children so much that they figured, it didn’t really matter anyway; the good Lord will let them know when they’d had enough. In the meantime, they decided to enjoy simply having them, and not worry about it.