Jaye Marie and Anita Dawes

Christmas was a magical time for me as a child. My mother went all out, dividing our living room into three equal pie wedges out from the tree. Every inch of floor space would be filled with toys. She didn’t wrap anything, so upon first waking and walking out into the front room, young eyes dazzled with riches. It was amazing!

Looking through pictures I saw that one year I received a Chatty Cathy doll, a tiny kitchen set with a kid-sized table and chairs, and about a hundred other gifts, all setting me up to become the perfect little wife and mom I already wanted to be. Way over the top. Those Christmases were what first made me believe that anything was possible. Any wonderful thing that happened was real. I could believe in it and would not be disappointed.

Since then, I have learned that sometimes wonderful things…