A Texas Christmas Story

[Texas Ranger]

'Twas the night before Christmas & out on the ranch

The pond was froze over & so was the branch.

The snow was piled up belly-deep to a mule.

The kids were all home on vacation from school,

And happier young folks you never did see-

Just all sprawled around a-watchin' TV.

Then suddenly, some time around 8 o'clock,

There came a surprise that gave them a shock!

The power went off, the TV went dead!

When Grandpa came in from out in the shed

With an armload of wood, the house was all dark.

"Just what I expected," they heard him remark.

"Them power line wires must be down from the snow.

Seems sorter like times on the ranch long ago."

"I'll hunt up some candles," said Mom. "With their light,

And the fireplace, I reckon we'll make out all right."

The teen-agers all seemed enveloped in gloom.

Then Grandpa came back from a trip to his room,

Uncased his old fiddle & started to play

That old Christmas song about bells on a sleigh.

Mom started to sing, & 1st thing they knew

Both Pop & the kids were all singing it, too.

They sang Christmas carols, they sang "Holy Night,"

Their eyes all a-shine in the ruddy firelight.

They played some charades Mom recalled from her youth,

And Pop read a passage from God's Book of Truth.

They stayed up till midnight-and, would you believe,

The youngsters agreed 'twas a fine Christmas Eve.

Grandpa rose early, some time before dawn;

And when the kids wakened, the power was on.

"The power company sure got the line repaired quick,"

Said Grandpa - & no one suspected his trick.

Last night, for the sake of some old-fashioned fun,

He had pulled the main switch - the old Son-of-a-Gun!

[jim king]

One of the nice things about Christmas is that it brings out this side of people.

[Coon]

Reminds me of goin' out to my grandparents for Christmas.  Many times they had no power due to the snow storms.  Gramps never played the fiddle but boy can I ever still hear that ol' banjo singin'.  I do recall walking up the road on Christmas eve after we had gotten the car stuck about a mile from the farm.  You could hear that banjo ringing out a melody and people singing along.  Once into the house we were greeted with hot chocolate while gramps hooked the team up to pull the car to the yard.  He could have so easily started the old Oliver tractor and plowed it out to the car but he said "nobody will touch it. It's safe till morning.  Well...... it snowed for three days and nights and the car just had to sit there till we dug our way out from the yard out.  Not one of us got bored.  There was lots of snow to play in and the woodbox could always be topped up. 

When I was about twelve years old and after we all had opened the gifts on Christmas morning us kids went out to carry wood in and fill the woodbox then go out and play.  We were playing hide and seek when I got the brave idea of hiding behind the wood pile cuz no one would look for me there.  Nobody did.  ;D  I got tired of hiding so I started splitting firewood.  Some of the rounds that I was splitting were about as tall as I was at the time and somehow I managed to stand them up and whack away at them until they split.  After a couple of hours or so I came out of the woodwork only to find some of the adults dressing up to go looking for me. ;D   Needless to say I had to show them what I had done seeing as they were all dressed for the cold. There was still alot of split wood to pile to make room to split more.  I told them that I would split some more once they were finished stacking and that I was going to the house for a cup of baba's bestest hot chocolate.  ;)  Boy did I ever make a big mistake by opening up and saying that I would split more cuz they had it all piled up in no time.  Not one other person would swing that axe the whole Christmas hollidays cuz I opened up my yap. :D  The whole pile about ten cords worth got split and stacked and gramps never touched a stick. ;D

Brad.   

[Don_Papenburg]

Yep , No good deed goes unpunished. ;D