Gifts and Times on Santa's Porch

Sometimes, the best gifts are those not placed under the living room Christmas tree.

When we were kids, Santa would leave gifts on our back porch -- something for my brother, sister and me -- be it a much-awaited GI Joe, a Matchbox car set, a Barbie, the newest Hardy Boys mystery. It was always something we always looked forward to come Christmas morning, as we threw up our bedcovers and ran to the back porch, finding our new gifts, unwrapping them and playing with them until lunch time.

As years went by, the gifts weren't left on the porch anymore but Santa must have been in a wee hurry as he left them with our parents and they gave it to us in the morning. Still, we'd be playing in that back porch/storage area (as it was converted to store most of the junk in our house) for a while. My brother and I would be setting up GI Joe camps all over while sometimes my sister would play with her coffee/dining set and dolls.

The house got renovated and the back porch made way to a bathroom for my parents bedroom, we grew busy with school and eventually moving to different career paths. The gifts of Christmas still come but in a more traditional way under the Christmas tree in the new downstairs living room. Santa must be mailing in presents now as he would be too old to be riding his sleigh and Rudolph's hooves might need retreading.

But still, I remember that crowded back porch and spending time with my brother and sister. The laughs and the fights, I realize now, were the true gifts and not the toys we played with or the books we got to read. It was the time spent with each other that we received and that is what matters most.

Santa, indeed, knows best.

My grown-up Christmas list has not been written yet but as a postscript, it will be sure to include:

1. Tonett and me surviving our first years of residency
2. Success and contentment to all of our friends and siblings
3. Good health to all our families
4. Guidance in the work we do
(I reserve the uhm right to add more once the need arises)

Truly these won't fit on any porch, but I'll take it.