I got everything together, though, and it was okay. We had a good meal, and it came time for presents to be given and opened. When I picked up the first little gift bag and reached down inside, I pulled out an object that was immediately familiar but that I had never expected to see again: Penguey.
As a very small child, I had a whole set of floating toys, a penguin, a whale, and a seal, that I played with during the summers in those brightly-colored plastic pools they still sell at Wal-Mart, and in the bathtub during the rest of the year. I haven't thought about them in years. I guess I had just assumed they had been long-lost along with all the other things of childhood. Imagine my surprise to look down as see Penguey smiling blithely up at me from the red and green Christmas tissue paper! Mom had found him when she'd been out in the yard working recently. He'd popped up from under some leaves, explaining his rather dark and tatty condition. He's been scrubbed with everything we can find, but the white of his belly will probably never be white again. He is still soft, though, and his blue color and yellow beak are still visible, incredibly. Not bad for something very nearly as old as I am that's spent almost all its life in Mississippi's harsh climate.
I got several wonderful things this Christmas that I really love. I was blessed with presents that I asked for and things that were useful, beautiful, and adult-oriented. However, probably the thing I will remember the most about this Christmas is actually the unexpected return of this tiny visitor from my past. I smile every time I look at him.
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And then you said.....