THAT FIRST CHRISTMAS

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Our first Christmas

I’ll never forget it, that first Christmas with TLW (The Little Woman) as we had just planned on getting married. It seemed that everything I saw, everything I did, and everything she said was magical. My world was so much younger then, and was just opening up.

The long hard winter of personal austerity was finally over for me, the days of hitchhiking and taking trains to school, the two jobs and saving every penny was behind me. I had a new job as a professional designer, the very thing I had hoped to achieve was a new reality, and the world was fresh and new once more.

The lovely Miss Manning was working in Manhattan as an executive secretary for Mobile Oil. She was sweet, had a high moral ceiling and seemed to like me! The last factor should have made me suspicious of her, but instead the opposite occurred, and I was head over heels in love.

I don’t think I felt the cold that winter, nor did I mind the long commute into the city, because she seemed to fill all my time in thought and every waking hour was devoted to her. The sleep was a continuous dream of this wonderful lady who would one day be my wife!

It is funny how souls connect. You meet someone who settles you down, makes you comfortable and doesn’t openly judge you, and you don’t see so much as feel. I think if she had two heads but made me feel the way I do to this day, I still would have married her.

Christmas in those days seemed very special before the children came. For the first time someone was doing something special for me and I in turn was doing something special for someone. It was this first Christmas that she got more building blocks for her spectacular reputation as a person with talent. She bought me this beautiful silk tie, dark blue with small tastefully placed red polka dots. It was her first present to me, and I wore it with such pride, and joy, that it still remains in my memory, and since that day, whenever she bought me a tie, people would remark how nice the tie was! I’d say: “Ellen got it for me!” There would be a big smile behind the statement.

It seemed once we announced our engagement, everything became so magical, the job, the seasonal music, my whole life-style, all rolled into this lovely lady. I remember how much my family took to her, as I introduced TLW to my family the first day after Thanksgiving and the very day I had asked her to marry me. Someone once remarked to me that she seemed just like one of my sisters, and that make me very happy. Dad never paid attention to my girl friends, but he did when TLW showed up. He took her seriously, showing her respect and welcomed her. I had risen in stock in my father’s mind. Mom saw her as the one person she would want to stick with her son, and said before I mentioned that I asked TLW to marry me that she wouldn’t mind calling her one of her daughters.

I waited to tell my family after I proposed to TLW because I feared that TLW would say ‘no’ and secondly, if by some small miracle she said ‘yes’ no one was influencing my decision. Having dated women from all walks of life, TLW was not about her self, had no selfish ideas or high opinions of who she was, instead she was and still is humble, making me realize that she was a great catch and worth every effort to marry her. Her family was a lot like mine, just Irish instead of Italian, and frankly, it was time to break the bonds in a new generation and enjoy the American experience, as did most of my sisters and just as most of her family did too.

I remember the office where I worked, the surprise engagement party they threw for us, and how she met them all and acted professionally, respectfully and above all, with an innate class the impressed everyone. They presented us with this beautiful cake cutter set and asked her to cut the cake, and in her nervousness, she flubbed the first piece!

My grandmother absolutely loved TLW, making a big fuss when I first introduced her, as she took out some brandy glasses and we toasted.

So Christmas means a lot to me, in many ways. The period will be the setting for many more great things, and some pretty terrible moments as well, but that first Christmas, with TLW will always be very special to me.

Merry Christmas!