Episode 1


“It’s December first, we can pull out the Christmas decorations now,” Dina announced to her two sons, who’d been waiting patiently since Thanksgiving to open the boxes of magic wrapped in tissue paper. While Kazu, eight, and Gustavo, five, had been thrilled with the huge tree they’d seen downtown, their father had been irritated that the Christmas decorations were up even earlier than last year.

“Ok, so now, according to the commercial calendar, the holidays begin the weekend before Thanksgiving,” Julio muttered as he hoisted in goods from the farmers market. The outing was his Saturday routine with the boys, giving Dina the morning to herself.

“Just promise me, we’ll wait until December to start decorating for Christmas.” He’d practically begged his wife before biting into a honey crisp apple.

“Did you wash that?” Dina asked.

Julio shrugged, “It’s organic…no pesticides.”

“It still might be dirty.”

“Dirt’s organic.”

“Can I have a bite?” Gustavo asked his father.

Julio grinned sheepishly and ran the remainder of the apple under the facet before holding it out for his son.

So now, 25 days before Christmas, on a cool gray afternoon, Dina and the boys sat in the middle of the living room unwrapping stockings, candles, lights and ornaments. They delighted in sharing their finds with each other, the boys old enough now to remember past Christmases, even though Gustavo could only recall last year when he was four.

“What’s this, Mama?” he asked, crawling onto his mother’s lap with a handful of multi-colored paper birds.

“Those are cranes that Grandma made,” Dina said helping him gently untangle the delicate origami cranes. She looked over to Kazu, unwrapping a wooden nativity set, and smiled. Their Christmas decorations signified the blending of her Japanese and Anglo background and Julio’s Mexican heritage, just as the boy’s names did.

“When are we gonna get our tree?” Kazu asked, digging into yet another box.

“Well, Daddy wants to wait until the week before Christmas,” Dina said.

Kazu looked up from his box and groaned. Gustavo looked to his brother and joined in the protest even though he wasn’t sure how long a wait it would be.

“What are we gonna do with the ornaments until then,” Kazu whined.

“We’ll decorate the hall table with them!” Dina exclaimed, trying to cheer the boys up. “You know, “deck the halls!” she added. They continued to stare at her blankly until she pulled out two Advent Calendars. Then both boys brightened and ran to her, jumping for the calendars she held up above her head.

“Hang these in your room,” she urged as she gave one to each of her sons. “And, be sure and open window number one!” She watched with a smile as they ran out of the room cheering. Then Dina’s eye fell on an ornament halfway unwrapped, the tissue paper pulled back to reveal a plain, straw angel.

Dina picked it up from the floor and held it up, smiling wistfully.


To be continued December 2...