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Topic: Christmas Cooking/Baking (not recipes) (10/16/08)
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TITLE: Charter Youth Home Christmas | Previous Challenge Entry
By Debbie Kennedy
10/22/08 -
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It was two days before Christmas 1976, at the Charter home for troubled teens. There were only nine of us kids left most of them got to go home for Christmas. We were not going to be having classes so me and my buddies, Adam and Mark had plans to take full advantage of the free time after all we were the only boys left with six girls. Three adults stayed with us, Lacy who was twenty-six, she was one of the daytime teachers. I have to admit we often gave her a hard time. Then there was Ms Ruby who was as round as she was tall, but a great cook. Our only real problem was going to be Mr. Arnold he was another day time teacher that acted more like a drill sergeant. I figured he was so mean that he did not even have a family to spend Christmas with.
That morning after breakfast Mr. Arnold told us boys to go get our coats, we were going on a field trip. We spent most of the morning handing out invitations for a Christmas meal to the poor. I ask Mr. Arnold why we were inviting these people to have Christmas with us. His response was, “It was the Christian thing to do”. Mark said he hoped Ms Ruby cooks enough food he wasn’t going share his meal. Mr. Arnold just gave us one of those looks with raised eyebrows we knew right then and there we better not say anything else.
That evening Mr. Arnold yelled up the stairs, telling us boys to come on down for dinner. Once we got down stairs to eat we discovered everyone sitting at one long table with three empty chairs for us. The food was in the middle of the table. After the blessing we ate like one big family. This was highly unusual to us because the room was full of tables and we were use to going through a line to get our food then sit where ever we chose. This arrangement put a damper on our plans to talk to the girls to see which ones might be willing to break a few rules with us that night. We discovered during dinner that some of the girls had spent the day shopping with Lacy and the other girls stayed with Ms Ruby baking for Christmas. When we finished our meal Mr. Arnold said we should all call it an early night that tomorrow was going to be a busy day. Later that evening the three of us were ready to sneak out when we discovered Mr. Arnold was bunking in the room across the hall from us with his door open.
Christmas Eve flew by fast, the boys had to go out and chop a tree then get the decorations from the attic, while the girls helped with the cooking. We were assigned duties to get ready for our Christmas guest. I remember thinking “guest” I certainly would not call them guest. I hoped none of them would show up.
That evening also turned out to be a little different than we thought it would be. After dinner we all went and decorated the tree, played games and the boys chased the girls around the room with missile toe. After a late snack of fresh baked cookies and hot chocolate my buddies and I headed up stirs to our room with Mr. Arnold only one step behind us, heading to his room.
On Christmas day I could not believe how much food had been prepared. I found myself praying that someone would show up so Ms Ruby would not be disappointed. “Yes, you heard me right I was praying” God answered those prayers and that day I learned the true meaning of Christmas, I also learned that Ms Ruby and Mr. Arnold were married and Lacy was their daughter. They had sacrificed their Christmas for us.
A couple months later Adam and Mark both got to go home. In July I was adopted by a wonderful family. My sister Lacy and I now carry on the family tradition during Christmas at the Charter Youth Home and “yes” I have taken over my dad’s place it is now my job to sleep across the hall from the boys that did not get to go home for Christmas.
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There were some grammar errors such as missing commas and missle toe is actually spelled "mistletoe", but those are minor errors that are easily fixed, and they did not detract from this great story.
I'm not sure if this is a true story or a fictional story, but I enjoyed it regardless. Thanks for sharing! :)