The Frozen Christmas Gift Growing up in the 1940s, I remember Christmas was so very different from those of today. There was very little money for Christmas gifts, but we always looked forward to Christmas, and had lots of fun, especially going mummering, from door to door, and the Christmas concerts. One special Christmas that I remember was when I was about 14 years old. I wanted to buy my mother a gift for the first time. I had a little money that I had earned baby-sitting. So a few days before Christmas, I went into the store to purchase my gift. Now, what could I buy for so little money? As I looked around the store, I saw a potato masher. Now, I thought Mom could use one of those. With five children in our family at that time, Mom cooked a lot of potatoes. So I bought the potato masher and took it home. Now, where could I hide it until Christmas morning? I had to keep it a secret from my brothers. As I looked around for a place to hide my gift, I discovered an old tub on the back of our house. It was covered with snow, and frozen to the ground. So I pushed and kicked it until it became loose. Then I put the potato masher under the old tub. Now, before Christmas, we had more snow, and it was very cold. When Christmas morning came, I was up early, and went to get my gift to give Mom. I was so excited. This was going to be my first Christmas gift to my mom. So I hurried to the back of the house to the old tub. Now it was really covered with snow, and, to my dismay, once again frozen to the ground. Now what could I do? I couldn't go for help, because I wanted it to be a surprise for all the family. So it was back to the pushing and kicking again, until finally, the old tub became loose once more. Then I discovered that the potato masher was also frozen to the ground. So it was back to the kicking again. After all this, I was exhausted, but I finally had my Christmas gift for Mom. Now, my gift was not wrapped - there was no fancy wrapping paper back then. Mom was quite happy with the potato masher. Down through the years, I've given my mother other gifts, but I believe that potato masher was the best and most useful gift she ever received.   Submitted By: NULL