A Heartwarming & Humorous Christmas Memoir
Nonfiction / Memoir
Date Published: 09-21-2023
Publisher: Horner Publishing Company
Brimming with heartfelt anecdotes, nostalgic escapades, and timeless humor,
Hair on Fire is a Christmas memoir like no other. It will warm your heart,
make you laugh uproariously, and transport you back to the most magical time
of the year. So grab a hot cocoa and snuggle under a cozy blanket while
Horner-Miller beguiles with her tales!
EXCERPT
Chapter Twelve
A CHRISTMAS SAD AND PRECIOUS
It was in the late 1960s. Mom, Dad, my teenage brother, and I arrived in Poway, California for a special Christmas celebration. My sister’s husband had recently been diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver, and the future loomed bleak. This was only the second time we’d traversed to California for Christmas, and this trip had such a mixture of emotion.
A couple years before, as newlyweds, my sister, her new husband, and his two children came to Colorado for a truly country Christmas with lots of snow.
My new brother-in-law immediately started picking on me, and we bonded deeply even though he forced me to try cranberries—I had never tried this dish before. In reality, it wasn’t a dish—Mom opened cranberry sauce that slid out of the can whole—plop!—and served it. It always looked slimy to me. With his humor and persistent influence, I grew to love cranberries!
Sunny California appeared gloomy and heavy. The festive atmosphere of Christmas felt tinged with a deep sadness and fear. My sister greeted us warmly, knitting like a crazy woman. She shared with me that all of their gifts this year were knitted. I thought it a wonderful idea, but shortly I learned finances drove her decision.
I gasped silently at the man we saw on arrival, a shadow of the man we met a few short years ago. The disease had ravaged my brother-in-law’s body, and he had lost so much weight, his clothes hung loose and limp on his frame.
But his spirit of love and laughter prevailed. Mom tried her hand at making homemade pie crusts, forgetting the effect of being at sea level on a recipe usually done at 6,100 feet above sea level. She grumbled about the gooey mess she kept trying to roll out, and my brother-in-law teased her unmercifully. As he ducked out of the kitchen with his latest quip, she slung the ball of dough at him, hitting him in the eye—a magnificent bullseye. Our laughter filled the kitchen with delight in the ridiculous.
Christmas Eve morning came, and my brother-in-law slipped into Mom and Dad’s bedroom and whispered his plan for the day to Mom and me. “I’m going to go sell some wood so I can buy my loving wife some Christmas presents. Don’t let her know where I’ve gone. Can you help me wrap the presents when I get home?”
Mom and I both choked back tears, nodding our heads.
The impact of my brother-in-law’s health had destroyed their finances. He hadn’t worked his normal construction job in several months; my sister had a good job, but she was so busy and overwhelmed being a caregiver, too. Living in the wooded area of Poway, he cut wood whenever he could and sold it to make some extra money and to keep active—his current lack of working was not his nature.
Christmas Eve day went by uneventfully except for my sister’s repeated refrain, “Where is my husband? What is he doing?” Her distress weighed on me, but I couldn’t ruin his surprise. She continued to knit, the needles rapidly moving in her nervous hands.
Daylight slowly faded into darkness. Mom and I exchanged worried glances all day—Dad and Bub joined my sister in wondering about the whereabouts of my brother-in-law.
Mom and I went to their bedroom to talk about what we should do—the pending darkness scared us. He had been gone for hours. What if something went wrong? Quietly my brother-in-law opened the door of my parent’s bedroom, a couple bags in hand. He looked exhausted but pleased with himself.
We wrapped the small collection of gifts—all kitchen utensils for my sister. We placed the gifts under the tree, and my sister, contrite in her reaction to her husband’s day-long absence, held back tears and pain.
I knew deep in my heart that this was the most precious exhibition of love I’d ever seen. His generosity and spirit graced the rest of that holiday.
Sixty-some years ago, and it still brings a smile to my heart, yet a tear to my eyes, as I remember his mission of love and the true spirit of Christmas.
Have you had a Christmas like this—both sweet and bittersweet at the same time?
About the Author
Larada Horner-Miller is an award-winning poet, essayist, blogger and
accomplished multi-genre author who holds a bachelor’s degree in
English and a Master of Education Degree in Integrating Technology into the
Classroom. She is the accomplished author of seven award-winning historical
fiction, memoir, and poetry works plus three self-published cookbooks.
Her new release, Hair on Fire: A Heartwarming & Humorous Christmas
Memoir is available in paperback and e-book format.
Her sixth book, Coronavirus Reflections: Bitter or Better?, is available in
paperback and four e-book formats. It won the 2023 New Mexico/Arizona Book
Awards for the Self Help/Guides category and the 2022 New Mexico/Arizona
Book Award for the Mind, Body and Spirit category. Larada offers the reader
the opportunity to look back at 2020 and the global pandemic through her
prose and poetry through reading, then reflecting and responding. She
addresses all the emotions she felt during this overwhelming time and leads
the reader through to a self-access: bitter or better?
Her fifth book is the authorized memoir and biography of world-renown
square dance caller Marshall “Flip” Flippo. Just Another Square
Dance Caller: Biography of Marshall Flippo is available now in hardback,
paperback and four e-book formats. Recently Just Another Square Dance Caller
won two awards: Book Excellence Awards Finalist and Silver award for eLit.
Book Awards.
Larada and her husband, Lin, enjoy being nestled in the mountains above
Albuquerque, New Mexico, near the village of Tijeras. She enjoys square
dancing, traveling, knitting, and reading.
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