Pursuits A Bedtime Story
Christmas C
Ellie’s
COBBLESTONE!PHOTOGRAPHY
lose your eyes for a moment and envision a little blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl living in a small country town in South Georgia. The smell of sunshine and fresh air gently wafts from her handme-down gingham dress. Her tanned bare feet gleefully skip through the warm, sandy hopscotch squares without stepping on the lines. Her name is Ellie and she was born to a hard-working family in Richmond Hill a long time ago. Ellie grew up happily surrounded by a close connection to her town’s people and its coastal environment. Ellie was happy; life was simple and predictable. Her deep-rooted family traditions gave her a sense of being safe and loved. As much as Ellie loved the summers, she could hardly wait for Christmas to come. When summer came to a lazy end sometime in early October, Ellie knew the cooler weather meant Christmas was not too far off. She began writing her letter to Santa Claus almost as soon as Thanksgiving dinner was over, thinking very carefully about each thing she wished for. Her list was not very long because her Mom always reminded her that Santa had to bring toys to a lot of children. Ellie wrote her letter in her very best handwriting, making sure Santa would be able to read every word. After she finished writing her letter, she walked to the end of the dirt road and mailed it to Santa at the North Pole. When Ellie was a little girl, there were no televisions in Richmond Hill, but her Mom had a radio they kept in the kitchen. Every day, Santa would come on the radio and read the letters he had received, and Ellie would sit quietly on the kitchen floor and listen. One day she heard him say he had a letter from Ellie in Richmond Hill, and he began to read it. Wow! Santa was real… he was on the radio… and he was reading her letter! He actually said he was going to bring her the beautiful bride doll that she had seen upstairs in Kress’s on Broughton Street in downtown Savannah. Two weeks before Christmas, Ellie’s Mom would go to the hall closet and pull out the big box that held all their treasured Christmas decorations. To Ellie, there was something reassuring about pulling the top off the old cardboard box: year after year the special box brought back memories of all the Christmases before. The oblong glass “bubbling” lights were her favorite. She would stand very still beside the tree until the lights warmed up enough for the water inside to start bubbling. They were so beautiful – they made the tree come to life! At school, Ellie made a star from construction paper, which she carefully smeared with
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