Christmases gone by
Having just finished the Christmas routine, I find myself thinking about Christmases gone by. I keep thinking about the year I was about 4 (I think) and all five of us kids were gifted with these things called Mini-boggans. If you’re too young to remember these, they were your basic “miniature toboggan”, which is to say, a sheet of sturdy plastic with a rope handle at one end. You put those one of those at the top of a snow-covered hill, install a kid on top of it, and give it a push down the hill. You might not see the kid again for an hour or so, but you can bet he’s having a good time! 
Then there was the year my wife’s family moved here from Up North. I wasn’t there, obviously, but I’ve heard so many stories O feel like I was. My wife’s uncle gave her parents a couple of hand-painted mailboxes.
Since my in-laws had nicknamed the farm they bought “bugtussle”, these mailboxes had been painted with pictures of wasps and ants, as well as the name and address where the folks had moved.
I never did understand why he made TWO of them, though. One was put to use immediately, the other was placed in storage until my wife and I moved here, at which time we were given it.
At this point, you can no longer tell what was painted on either of therm, though.
