An unexpected gift from a secret Santa arrived at my doorstep late in the evening on Dec 24th, 2024. It was wrapped in beautiful gold and silver, shimmering paper, with a bow tie on the top in the colour of red, I wasn’t expecting any more deliveries, and definitely hadn’t ordered anything to be delivered that night, it was fairly unusual to receive a gift for me as I am mostly a loner these days. There was a name tag on it but I didn’t bother looking who it was addressed to as I just assumed it was probably for my daughter from her fathers side of the family. I stuck it under the tree and proceeded to get ready for bed, tuck my little girl in and rest for the night as I knew the next morning would be an early one. 

My daughter was always awake early on exciting days like Christmas.

This year wasn’t quite like other years however as it was just my daughter and I celebrating, my mother would normally be with us too however, she passed away a couple months before Christmas and sadly there would be an empty seat in our household this year. 

Before bed I prayed that even though my mother was no longer with us in human form that she would be with us in spirit and that this Christmas would still be filled with as much joy and happiness as the years when she was here. 

I finished my prayer with an ‘Amen!’ And drifted off to sleep.