Bendy Toy

I instantly recognized the handwriting before my eyes found the return address. It was a yellow package from my mom. The lid of the black mailbox clanked shut as I carried the cold gift to into our warm home. There's a magical excitement about packages delivered to your home. First of all, it is amazing USPS can bring something from my parent's front door in California to mine in Michigan in two days. Secondly, a package contains something specific and special, a surprise of intention wrapped in protection with a seal just for you.

So I pulled up the sticky tabs and emptied a short note from mom and two objects wrapped in tissue paper. One was a square tin which I opened to find a red frame ornament. "Our First Christmas" is
written beneath a picture of Rachel and I on our wedding day. It's on our little tree now.

I unwrapped the tissue paper from the second object in my palm: an old rubber Santa Claus bendy toy. A smile crept to my lips. It's funny how something so dinky and small can take me back to my house as a kid. Around the Christmas season, this little Santa could be found hanging from the shower head or our bedposts with a frozen smile and his stiff little green mittens. It's the work of my mom's quirky sense of humor and I love it.

With the Santa bendy toy in my palm Christmas felt closer, the room felt warmer, and my mom wasn't so far away. It's the little things like this that I miss, tokens of the heart that remind me of home. Now he's hanging by his feet from the top of our floor lamp next to the tree. What a priceless gift. The little toy santa to me is worth more than its weight in pure gold because it's is a piece of my mom's heart living in my home. Thanks mom.