Screw Ups of an 8-Year-Old to Ruin Christmas for Mom - New Writers Welcome December Competition
There’s no end to how I irritated my mother
My mother loved Christmas. She went all out with decorations and gifts and celebrations. She instilled in her children an excitement for the holidays that many of our schoolmates did not possess. This was also a serious time for her. She had a rigid schedule to adhere to and no one better get in the way.
But I messed things up on a regular basis.
I could always be counted on to be the bad child at Christmas. The one whose actions brought on the silent treatment from my mom.
One year I had a friend over. We were playing under our enormous tree. The tree the whole family trudged back in our woods together to watch my dad chop down.
My mom always announced when she saw my dad pull in the driveway from work in his pickup truck. That was the signal that we’d have dinner very soon and also to greet him like we had not seen him since last July 4th. I rolled my eyes at my friend and said: “Big deal!” My mom overheard this in the kitchen. She came in and railed on me mercilessly. “How could you act that way about your father? You are closer to him than I am. You have his blood. Shame on you!” My friend was a little…
