CONTEST ENTRY: Once Upon a Real Life Scrooge- Cheryl G.

The holidays are for joy, time with family, no arguments, and selflessness. Sadly not every family can have this picture perfect holiday time for there will always be that one person who can be easily labeled “Scrooge”. The Scrooge of my life is my grandmother.
Every year around the holiday season my younger brother and I get very excited for dinner with aunts and uncles, snow, pine scented candles, the Christmas tree, and, the classic, no school for a week. Although we look forward to this time of year, our holiday spirit gets cut down by our grandmother as she is not one for the holidays and as hard as she tries, it just doesn’t work. The worst Christmas was a few years ago…
It was Christmas morning and my brother and I were up nice and early to make a breakfast of pancakes and bacon for the family. My grandmother got out of bed and was clearly grumpy.
“Merry Christmas Gram!” my brother said to her.
“Merry Christmas” she grunted as she walked to the kitchen.
“We’re just waiting for mom to take the dogs out and come down” I said. She glared at me and mumbled an “okay”. We sat in the parlor and watched Christmas movies for an hour or so waiting for my mom. Finally, my grandmother had had it.
“Where is your mother?” she asked angrily.
“She just got up and is getting ready to take the dogs out now” I said.
“Well, I’m done waiting for her. We need to just get this over with so we can go to Auntie Cindy’s and then come home and be done with Christmas.”
“Gram, she’s on her way down. Just wait a few.”
“Like I said, I’m done waiting.” She got up, grabbed her jacket and walked out of the house. My brother looked at me sadly and started to tear up for he was not happy that this was happening.
We both knew that she hated Christmas but we didn’t think it was enough for her to walk out on her family. My brother and I were very upset with this whole situation as we didn’t think that having to wait for mom was that big of a deal. We thought that the whole spirit of the holidays was to be with your family and do things together even if someone was running a little late.
Eventually my grandmother came back to the house but she was in no better mood than she was when she left. My mom came down once my grandmother had returned and we all sat in the parlor around the Christmas tree and open our gifts.
“Cheryl,” my brother said to me.
“Yes ‘Tonio” I replied.
“We didn’t get as many gifts as we did last year” I helped him put his new clothes away in the drawer.
“Nope we didn’t but that doesn’t matter.”
“How does that not matter” he said going all bug-eyed.
“Because we got something and that’s more than a lot of people can say. So be happy you got something because something it better than nothing.”
We later ventured to my aunt’s house where everyone was smiling and wishing everyone a Merry Christmas except for my grandmother. She was not smiling, she was not happy, and she did not want to be there for she would’ve much rather been home. At the dinner table I asked if I could say something and I was allowed to.
“Merry Christmas everyone. I just want to say that it’s not about the amount of presents under the tree, the amount of money in the envelope, or whether you’re rich or poor. It really just matters who you’re with and that you’re thankful for any thing that you got.” I smiled, sat down and ate with my family.
I looked across the table at my grandmother who still looked miserable. I had thought that my speech would’ve had an impact on her but seemingly it didn’t. Sometimes, one can take a Scrooge and make them better but sometimes, one must just work around their Scrooge and try their best to enjoy the holiday season. Sadly, that’s what my family and I must do.