Good weather occurs almost every Christmas in Tranquil hills.  It never rains.  This year is no exception. The ritual Christmas dinner assembles in the kitchen by Grandma and mother Wracks.  Tonight there is a huge eye round roast which was the Wracks grandfather’s favorite, with baked potatoes and sour cream, boiled green beans with oil and garlic and garlic bread.  The Yorkshire pudding will be made as the dinner is served as it is best when hot and sinks when it gets cold. The ingredients include meat drippings, flour and baking powder and   it bakes at four hundred degrees for fifteen minutes. In the dining room, the big oak table sits eight and seven will partake of the ceremonial religious repast.  The best wedding china sets out on the table with ceramic napkin rings and linen of stark white.  The red table cloth with a flower centerpiece demarks this festivity as Christmas day.  Next to the fine china abut a water glass and a wine glass in crystal showcasing the sterling silver flatware done four pieces to a place setting.  The food will place on the pass-through arcade and the guests will go first to savor the fine cooking buffet style.  Wracks mother is a gourmet chef and authored a cookbook the size of the Bible under a pseudonym which was her name before it changed.   This chronicles as another story.  The clock displays five thirty p.m. and the guests should be arriving presently. Grandmother hears a car outside and opens the door to greet the guests.  Sallie and Earl step out of a silver coupe de ville Cadillac.  Earl has a bottle of hard liquor in his hand and Sallie has a box of chocolates. This couple attends the same church as mother Wracks and is in the same guild.  Earl is middle sized man with greying blond hair wearing an expensive charcoal grey suit.  Sallie is petite and demur and the plush mink coat on her shoulders almost dwarfs her small slender body. The stole is almost the same color as her hair silver beige and must be quite expensive.  Earl greets the Wracks and hands the bottle of Scotch Whiskey to father Wracks.

This is the best Scotch says Earl.  Save it for when Sallie and I come over.  It is all I drink. 

Both Earl and Sallie herald from Texas from some successful family there and the large solitaire diamond on her middle finger must be at least five karats and flashes when direct light impinges upon it.  Sallie has three children, one a girl the same age as Wracks, a son, and another who she marks as adopted. They live in the most fashionable town in Los Angeles and their house presents on a one acre lot which includes a swimming pool, maid’s quarters and three car garages.  The Wracks mother met her at a church gathering and she announces that she has a daughter of marrying age. Wracks cannot understand why someone with their wealth would have any interest in a middle class family, but they do.  The guests move to the living room, a space with a large window over green and white shag carpeting and antique furniture. 

Make me a drink inquires Earl.  I would like a double and the wife would like a Manhattan on the rocks

Father Wracks moves to his makeshift bar above the television and complies.  He then serves the drinks to the guest.  They commiserate for a while with mom and Dad until Grandma announces that the roast is done and the Yorkshire pudding is in the oven.  Everyone shows, then sits down, even the Fonz who nests on the right hand of mother like he normally does. Father Wracks cuts into the large Roast.  It is rare just like their generation likes it.   Wracks prefers medium done but will eat whatever he can get and tonight it is Christmas dinner.  The essence slowly flows out of the bright red meat onto the platter.  The greasy Yorkshire pudding has risen and shows up on the buffet line and the guests are first and line up and heap the good food upon their plates.   Mom Wracks really is a good cook.  She really is.  The Wracks is last as usual and takes whatever he can get.  Father Wracks pours a red cabaret sauvignon into his glass and passes the bottle around.  It empties quite rapidly.  He then chinks his fork upon his glass, stands up and proposes a toast:

Who in the world is better than us?  Manga.

And the meal begins.  Grandma does not eat much and puts her meat on the Wracks plate.  She watches out for him.  Then the desert follows; a blueberry pie and an apple pie with vanilla ice cream.  The wracks have a piece of each.  After dinner the guests and the folks move back into the living room and bring a bottle of French cognac and snifter glasses in with them.  The Wracks is not much of a drinker.  He and grandmother rinse the dishes; load the dishwasher and then the Wracks scrubs the cooking pans with steel wool and takes out the trash.  He says hello to his little terrier locked in the clothes washer room so he wouldn’t terrorize the guests.  Wracks put some meat scraps in his dish and the dog barks and it is Christmas. The Wracks returns to his room he shares with his brother.  At about ten o’clock, or more, grandma announces the guests are leaving.  Wracks returns and helps Sallie into her Cadillac and closes the door.  In unison everyone says Merry Christmas and the meeting culminates.  The Wracks gathers up the cognac glasses and spent napkins and brings them all into the kitchen.  He then walks to the living room and sits in the chair next to the Christmas tree and watches the lights blink on and off repeatedly.  The ornaments are hand made by grandma, sequins embedded with pins on Styrofoam balls with names and scrolls upon them.  The flickering lights impinge and dance upon the reflective sequins.  The few gifts of the year surround the base of the tree from the morning opening.  The Wracks is in college and he doesn’t need anything except tuition money and this is all he gets.  He is the lucky one. He lets the dog back in the family room and puts up the dog barricade and retires to his room.  He is tired and slowly starting to fall asleep.  He takes off his pants and fits into bed and then into unconsciousness. The fonz doesn’t live here anymore.

Christmas is the most important holiday of the year.  It is a day where we celebrate our ethical values and charity and vow to make the world a better place.  For the Wracks, Christmas was a day with a family and a good meal and dose of love.  He would not give up his memories for anything, because they are special and meaningful.  Some people don’t have any of these simple yet tantamount quantities in their lives.  Christmas is love and giving and rejoicing in the gifts and bounty the God provides.  In Tranquil Hills it is Christmas day.  The Wracks is the lucky one.