The Christmas Hubcap

Long ago, in Christmas 2002, I received the most heart-warming gift that I will never forget. It was late Christmas morning, and we were all assembled around my parents' Christmas tree eagerly awaiting our Christmas joy. I believe the honor of Santa was bestowed upon my brother that year. Slowly, he began distributing the piles of presents to each family member. Six for Mom, five for Dad, six for Don, ten for Anthony and one for me. I looked down at the wrinkled Victoria's Secret bag held shut with many pieces of scotch tape and wondered what treasure this glorious bag held for me. I just hoped that it wasn't too embarrassing! I waited as everyone opened their gifts. Don received jumper cables, Anthony received a Palm Pilot, stereo and Hummer cologne, Dad received various video cassettes about the space program and Mom received her jewelry cleaner, again. I could hardly contain my excited anticipation! It was finally my turn! I careful ripped each piece of tape individually from the bag and slowly removed the multi-colored tissue paper which hid the bag's contents from easy view. Finally, my eyes caught a bright silver gleam from beneath the last piece of tissue. They began to well with tears of great joy as I pulled a bright shiny hubcap from its temporary home.

My dad was so proud to tell me the story of two hubcaps. I won't do it justice, but it goes something like this: Once there were sister mini-vans who lived in the garage together: one white and one blue. The white one had been well cared for and didn't have many cosmetic problems. The blue van was adopted from a caring family, but had only one deformity: one of its hubcaps didn't match the others! It was a source of great shame for the blue mini-van and its drivers. Years went by and one day the white mini-van had a blow-out on a major freeway and lost one of its perfect hubcaps. The blue mini-van had moved away and was not aware of this great calamity that had befallen its sister. Once again, there was great shame in the garage. Ever observant, my dad noticed that the blue van's defect hubcap was an exact match for the white van's missing hubcap. Hurray! So, he did what any loving mini-van owner would do and drove down to Hubcap Annie's to find the blue van's long lost matching hubcap!So, a few days after Christmas the hubcap transplant took place and we have two very happy mini-vans to this very day.

So, every year around this time, I spare a thought for that hubcap: the best gift a girl could ever receive!

*This story was based on fact. Some of the details have been changed due to lack of memory.

Don, the Hubcap & me

Ok, so my dad gets a bum wrap in this story. In all fairness, this was the Christmas after our wedding, so I'm sure that my parents felt that they had spent more than enough money on us for one year! I know that Christmas isn't all about presents and money, but you have to admit that it's a funny story.