Reply #64: My daughter's father-in-law

[Frances]

looked around at all of the toys his grandchildren got one Christmas and said, "I was lucky if I got a beat-up old tin toy."

I was born in 1941 and times were easier for me and my younger siblings, because we got a couple of new toys each. And we got oranges and apples and nuts in our stockings. My grandchildren wouldn't understand why oranges and apples and nuts were treats!

But both my brother and I say our happiest memories of Christmas came when our parents let us put out the toys for the younger children on Christmas Eve night after the little ones had gone to bed. It truly is more blessed to give than receive. I'm happy my parents could buy those gifts. A lot of children were really poor when I grew up and got very little.