My $50 Million Dollar Christmas Gift

It was Christmastide Eve, and the best possible nighttime from 100s of terrific nighttimes spent at my topographic point across from the beach in Santa Barbara. My son, Rob, was coming place from college for the holidays.

A garlicky rack of lamb was roasting in the oven, with Rosmarinus officinalis new potatoes in the underside of the pan. With it I'd function a delightful warm watercress salad, and the homemade carrot cake.

Paganini rose from the stereo, and two big windows that overlooked the sea and Anacapa Island, flanked the hearth that glowed with a toasty fire.

The adjacent twenty-four hours we would go forth early to drive for hours, to pass Christmastide Day in my brother's helter-skelter household. Tonight it would be just we two, having agreed to exchange just one nice gift each, and to maintain the ornaments discrete. I looked at the life room with pride. Then my boy walked-in, and just like the first citizen of Rome, Cornelia, said of her sons, I thought, "This is my jewel."

We took our Sheltie, Ladd, and daiquiris, and headed over to walk on the beach. The sun was setting, flaming red-orange trailing Stearns wharf. Venus sparkled diamond-like against the purple, pink-streaked sky, and high above the Santa Barbara Channel Islands.

We both knew, but didn't say, it was his Dad's birthday that had been famed at my Mother's with at least twenty household members every twelvemonth on Christmastide Eve when he was alive.

My eyes scanned from the long line of tall, graceful Queen thenars that lined the promenade to the craggy, violet Santa Ynez Mountains that background Santa Barbara.

A achromatic top-heavy tugboat lumbered over the glassy sea and towards the pier with prehistoric-looking pelicans trailing aft. Ladd comically chased the chumps and sandpipers along the shore, and I remembered a conversation with my best friend Gloria the nighttime before. We'd also taken Ladd for a walking on the beach before heading for dinner and the movies; and had purchased Lotto tickets from a shop we passed near the show.

The Lotto that nighttime had been $50 million, Gloria had laughed, "What I wouldn't give to win!" I'd instantly knew: my son. Then realized how rich a individual already is to cognize that $50 million couldn't replace what they already had.

Rob cut into my thoughts, "I would never be in a haste to go forth this place, Mom."

This is the 1 minute I would choose, if I could only take one from a very rich life, to dwell with through eternity: The unforgettable minute of peace, beauty, recognition, and gratitude, for the unreplaceable gift I already had.