memories

As children, most of us made a list of  the things we wanted from Santa.  I painstakingly  wrote him a letter every year, in fact.  Until grade three, at the top of my list was a doll, and not just an ordinary doll.  I had poured over the Sear's catalogue for weeks looking at the details of each doll pictured, imagining her in my arms.  My mother was careful to observe my final pick.  Of course I never knew why.  And what a surprise on Christmas morning that Santa had selected the very one I wanted.  I had written sundry other things on the list too but n[...]