Prelude to a Giveaway

...so...I think it's time for a little Christmas giveaway. And it is going to be a something a little different.

I wrote this little story some years back and it seems appropriate right now...during this season of giving and sharing and offering brightness where there is only gray.

Tomorrow I will post the giveaway. And after you read this try and think of someone who could use a little extra sunshine in their life right. Tomorrow I will tell you what I'm thinking.
She pressed her sweet, little nose against the frosted window pane. Through the fog of her breath she looked at the snow frosted street…standing on tiny tip-toes to catch a glimpse of her Mother.

Oh, but it was cold here. How the little girl missed her home far away. She remembered playing on the playground in the desert winter sun, making orange juice for breakfast from sun-kissed fruit and picking big bouquets of roses to grace their holiday Christmas table.

But fate and sadness had brought her and her Mother far from the warmth of the low desert on this bleak and blow-y wintry Christmas. From the bedroom door she heard a series of coughs and she quickly left her chilly post at the window to hurry into that darkened room.

Her Gwams lay on the bed covered in many quilts and surrounded by pictures and books and mementos of her life.

“Gwams, can I get you something?” the little girl asked. Her Gwams lay pale and still, her once plump faced thinned and lined by some horrible sickness that all the adults whispered about. No-one told the little girl but she knew something very bad was happening…. Something that might take her beloved Gwams from her forever. When the little girl glanced again at her Gwams dear face she saw she had returned to sleep. The little girl pulled the covers up around her Gwams shoulders and quietly left the room.

Just then her Mother came through the door. The snow glistened on her hood and her booted feet left a little pile of slushy snow on the mat by the door. Her Mothers face was flushed from the cold and she looked very excited.

“Look, sweetie, look what came in the mail!” Her Mother exclaimed and she showed her little daughter a small box postmarked Arizona.

Oh my! What excitement! The little girl laughed and clapped her hands and jumped up and down in her joy. Her Mother didn’t even take off her boots but left atrail of damp tracks into the kitchen where she grabbed a small paring knife to cut the tape on the box.

The little girls excitement was great and she watched as her Mother carefully cut the tape and opened the box. Oh my! What was this? A smell the little girl had almost forgotten. The fragrance of lemons and sunshine and home rose from the box and the little girl and her Mother gazed in amazement at the beautiful gleam of yellow lemons, glowing like captured sunshine.

Mother dumped the box onto the table and the sunshine spilled into the room, spreading fragrance and light into the chilly air. A few leaves had been left on some of the fruit and the green seemed especially vibrant.

The little girl carefully picked the most perfect lemon and tiptoed quietly into her Gwam’s room. Very gently she laid it on the pillow next to her dear Gwams tired, grey face. Still asleep, her Gwams turned her head slightly and inhaled the fragrance of sunshine…. a gentle smile lit her face as she continued her peaceful slumber.