***
This time of year always brings back a flood of memories, and one of my favorites was my son’s (know here as “Ysabel Kid’s Kid”, or simply, “Y2K”) first Christmas.
It was ten years ago (1998), and Y2K was only 6 months old. My wife and I had tried for many years to have children. We had all but given up, consigning ourselves to start the adoption process after one last try at IVF. God blessed us with our son, and we were looking forward to our first Christmas with him more than any other Christmas before.
We had been in the south a couple of years, me having taken a job in field sales for the company I worked for. In that time I had made many friends at the customers I called on; turns out there are a lot of fellow shooters and firearms enthusiasts still out in the real world.
I was off on vacation and it was December 23. The weather had actually turned quite horrible across the entire south, with terrible ice storms from Texas all the way through to Virginia. It was about 10:00pm at night, and Y2K was sleeping, while my wife and I were in our pajamas in the family room in front of the fireplace, talking about the activities for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day that we had coming up. We were watching the news and had just seen a story about the people stuck at the Charlotte airport – over 1,000 of them – trying to get home for the holidays and now stranded due to the ice storm. They had closed the airport.
The phone rang. This was very unusual at this time of night, and so close to Christmas. I answered it and the call was from one of those customers mentioned before. I instantly thought something must be wrong with a delivery or product; why would he call at this hour if that wasn’t the case I thought to myself.
Bill asked me how I was doing and how the family was. He had known of our attempts to have children, and how much we were looking forward to our first Christmas together. He asked how the weather was, and I explained how awful it was. He then said, “well, that is why I am calling”.
He went on to say, “Jay, my niece is trying to get home for Christmas from Dallas (Bill and his family live in Richmond, VA). She has been trying to do so all day long, and is now stuck in Charlotte.”
I gasped, “We were just watching TV Bill, and they said that over 1,000 people are stranded at the airport. What can I do to help?”
“I was hoping you ask,” Bill went on, “she has called all around, but can’t get a rental car, taxi, or hotel room. She’s coming back from school to be with her family, and she’s alone, tired and a bit scared.”
“Can you get a hold of her”, I asked.
“Yes, she’s going to call me again from a payphone in 5 minutes.”
“Okay. I will drive over to pick her up. She can spend the night with us, and then I will take her back to the airport tomorrow.”
“Are you sure this is okay with Connie?” Bill asked. Good question – I hadn’t even thought to ask, though Connie was listening intently to my half of the conversation. “Let me check”. I quickly explained the situation to my wife. We both had the same vision in our head – some young college co-ed away from home, and now at her wits end trying to get home before Christmas. My wife instantly agreed.
“It’s all set” I said. “When she calls tell her to meet me by the baggage claim…” I started, giving the rest of the instructions and then ending with telling Bill to describe me and what I’d be wearing, and to call me back with a description of her and her attire. Bill agreed, hung up, and I went to change. He called back thanking me profusely from himself, Lisa (his niece), and their entire family. He then gave me her description. “Lisa is in her early 20’s with long blonde hair, about 5 foot two, and 100 pounds. She’s wearing jeans, a gray sweatshirt, and a cowboy hat.”
“Cowboy hat?” I asked.
“Oh yeah, I forgot to mention – she’s a Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader”, Bill responded.
Now Bill is one of the foremost practical jokers in the southeast, so I just let this last comment slide, figuring he was joking. I also didn’t tell this part to my wife. I told him to let her know I was on my way, but it may take me a while due to the storm, though in dry conditions, the airport is only 25 minutes from my house.
I left, and sure enough, it was horrible outside. It took me a clean hour to make the drive. I parked, went inside, and found Bill’s niece.
He wasn’t kidding.
Lisa was indeed a Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader. No, she wasn’t in uniform, but she was simply a stunning figure of a woman, even in “travel clothes”. I suspected this was going to raise some eyebrows when we got home! Her luggage was stuck on a plane somewhere, so off we went, taking a full hour to get home as well.
I called my wife from the car explaining that I had found Lisa and we were on our way home, and that it had taken an hour to get to the airport. We got in about 12:30am. As we walked through the door I could see my wife, despite her best effort to control her reaction, jaw drop, and then give me “the look”. Lisa was exhausted, and my wife had gotten everything ready for her in the spare bedroom, so she went to bed almost right away. We did as well.
“She’s not what I envisioned”, my wife said as we got settled into bed.
“Nor me. I guess Bill was serious when he said she was a ‘Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader’”.
“He told you?!?”
Uh-oh. Cat was out of the bag now.
“Yes – but I thought he was joking”, I responded, knowing I was now in the doghouse.
“Uh-uh” she said, and rolled over to go to sleep.
Well, the next day we got to know Lisa a bit and she was just charming. She was indeed the aforementioned cheerleader, while also taking college classes in Dallas. The bad news was that none of the flights had rescheduled yet, and it looked like she might not make it home for Christmas, so I suggested that I take her to the Virginia border where he father could meet us and pick her up (roughly half way). She made the phone calls and we got ready.
“We’re going to Christmas Eve mass tonight Jay”, my wife began, “can you make it back in time?”.
“I’ll try my best.”
We made it up to the meeting spot and the look on her face, and her father’s when they saw one another, was something I will never forget. It makes me feel wonderful to this very day. I bid them a Merry Christmas and then high-tailed it back (3 hours both ways), just making it in time to meet my wife and son at church as the service began.
And the next morning, opening up gifts with my wife and Y2K for the first time, all was right in the world. It was peaceful outside, and really looked like Christmas, and knowing that we had helped make Christmas special for another family just made it that much better.
Here’s Y2K from that year, his first visit with Santa. May tomorrow bring you all the peace and joy of the celebration of our Savior’s birth!!!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
.***
