A Child's Haven - 81. Chapter 81

Returning to Sanctuary, life began to follow a pattern, breakfast, school, lunch, special activities, or free time followed by dinner. The kids seemed very happy. I spoke to Aaron about contacting a dentist to check the kids’ teeth. He suggested we contact the dental school at the University to have the graduating class do the examination. I thought that was a good idea and appointed Aaron as the contact person. Tony laughed, “Glad to see I’m not the only one to get assignments for opening my mouth.”

Aaron did make the arrangements. Since we had to take the kids in small groups, it took two weeks to get all of them checked. Several had cavities that needed to be filled, and a few required braces. They were given a lesson in proper dental care, which resulted in new tooth brushes.

It wasn’t long before we had to give some thought to Christmas. That always proved an issue because of the various religious groups represented among the kids. Although I tried to honor them all, it was just impossible. Most of these kids reflected their parents’ view, but considering the reason they are at Sanctuary, they adapted to whatever we did. At late-night coffee, which has becoming a routine, I asked for a committee to plan the Christmas party.

“I can’t believe that you aren’t going to celebrate on the ship.”

“No, we’ll board the ship on the 26th. I want to see the fireworks on New Year’s Eve from the ship; I will take a little cruise up the coast trying to see as many of the fireworks as possible.”

“Are you going to have a tree and decorate the dining hall?”

“Yes, we’ll have a tree. I’ll get Abe to design a large fireplace, and the kids can hang their stockings on that. I’ll buy a small gift for each stocking as well as a gift from Santa Claus. Now I need a volunteer to play Santa Claus.” I looked at our Captain. He laughed and nodded his head. Since Mario joined our group for that last cup of coffee, “Do you think we could let the kids bake cookies for the Holidays? They can use the home economics kitchen.”

“Sure, I know just the person to supervise and help.” I knew who he meant.

“That’s great. Anybody have any ideas for the gifts?”

“Why don’t we ask the kids to write a letter to Santa Claus? Then we’ll have an idea of what to get them.”

“Yes, that’s a great idea, and I knew just the kids to start them on doing that.” They chuckled, knowing that the gang of four would jump at the idea.

After the Thanksgiving cruise, I mentioned to Bubba if he had written his letter to Santa Claus. He said it was too early, and he wasn’t sure if the other kids wouldn’t think it was silly. “I don’t think it’s silly. That’s a great way to let Santa Claus know what you’d like to have as a Christmas gift. I’m going to write a letter so I’d like you to do it as well. I’ll post a mailbox in the dining room, and we can put our letters in there.”

“Are we going to go on the ship for Christmas?”

“No, we’ll have Christmas here, and then on the day after, we’ll go. I want to see the fireworks from the ship” Seed has been sown, and now we shall see what happens.

The first Saturday in December, Abe brought a mailbox painted in red and green with a snowman picture on the front. He set it at the beginning of the dining line; no one said anything. As the kids came in for lunch, they looked at the mailbox and just moved down the line for their lunch. I watched the gang of four; Bubba looked at me and then whispered to Pat, Curly, and Nick. I just watched. Pat was the first to come and sit by me. “Dad, is that the Christmas mailbox?” “Yes”

I would bet by tomorrow morning there will be four letters in that box.

The week before Christmas, Tony and Abe brought a large fir tree into the dining hall. I went and bought lights, ornaments, and a star for the top of the tree. As they were putting the tree in the stand, one of the kids came and sat beside me. “When I was home, we use to string popcorn and put it on the tree.” I looked at Sammy. He had tears in his eyes.

“Sammy, that’s a great idea. You can get together some kids, and I’ll get the popcorn, and you can string it. When you’re done, we’ll put it on the tree. Do you have any other ideas?”

“I guess we could cut out stars and other shapes and color them.”

“That sounds great. Could you head up that program? I’ll announce it at dinner tonight that you’re in charge. I’ll ask for volunteers, and you can explain your ideas.”

Those tears disappeared and were replaced with a twinkle. I gave him a hug and a kiss on his head, he took off. I saw him a few minutes later, surrounded by three boys and two girls. He was excited and smiling.

At dinner that night, I announced that Sammy came up with an idea to trim the tree. “He’s looking for helpers. Sammy, why don’t you tell them your ideas.”

Sammy had a big smile on his face as he told them about stringing popcorn and making ornaments out of paper. As he was telling the kids, I looked around the room. They were excited about making the ornaments and stringing popcorn. Tony leaned over, “You’ll need to buy four times the popcorn, they’ll eat as much as they string.” I just laughed.

I went and bought four large containers. I had a few of the older boys, with Sammy, and asked them to start popping the corn and filling the containers. When one container was full, Sammy started to string the popcorn. It was one on the string, two in his mouth. I just chuckled and knew I would need to buy more popcorn and popping oil. I dropped by about 4 hours later and saw that they had one container full of strung popcorn. There were eight kids stringing popcorn. They had one container full of unstrung popcorn and were filling the last one.

“Tony, I need to buy more popping corn and oil. They’re eating about two for everyone they string. I also need a couple more containers. You need to walk by and see what they’re doing.”

“You should check the activity floor; they’re cutting out stars, snowmen, and circles. I think there are about 12 kids up there.”

I left for the activity floor while Tony left for the popcorn popping area. The kids were cutting and stacking the paper cutouts. “Are you going to color them or paint them?”

“We are going to paint them with the paint leftover from the kits.” I noticed a few girls sitting in one of the corners, checking to see what they were doing; they were cutting up old clothes into various shapes.

“What’s up, ladies?”

“We are going to make stuffed toys for the tree.”

“How are you going to do that?”

One of the girls picked up two pieces of cloth that had been cut, “We sew the ends together, and before we sew it shut, we stuff it with the bits and pieces.”

“That’s a great idea. Are you going to paint them?”

“We’d need special paints for cloth.”

“Do you know what kind of paint to buy?” “Yes” “Then tomorrow after lunch, we’ll go and buy the paint.” They all smiled as they continue to make the dolls for the trees.

The next morning before the kids came in for breakfast. I handed Tony a handful of letters from the mailbox. “You need to start opening these letters and make a list. We’ll have to go shopping some morning while the kids are in school.”

I saw more kids drop letters into the mailbox as they passed on the way to get their breakfast. When they all had their trays, I went to get my oatmeal and coffee. “Brad, Maria said that they made ornaments out of flour and water. She could show some of the girls, and then they could color them.”

“Great, tell her to give you a list of what she’ll need, and I’ll get the stuff to make them.” I’m not sure about the kids, but I’m getting into the Christmas spirit.

“Tony, we need to take the kids Christmas shopping.” I saw the book come out of his pocket. I smiled.

“When do you want to do this?”

“Since Christmas will be on a Thursday, let’s plan on doing it the Saturday before. I’ll round up some helpers, and if you could persuade a store to close for 3 hours, so we can shop without security, that’d be great.”

“We probably need to do that in several stores. I doubt that one store will have all of what we’d need. We could take them to the hobby store, maybe a clothing store. That should cover it. I’ll work on it.”

That evening after dinner, I announced that we’d go Christmas shopping on the 20th for Christmas gifts. I further explained that they’d have to use their money and the gifts are generally given to close friends. I made sure that they knew they didn’t have to buy a gift for everyone or they didn’t even have to buy a gift, but if they wanted to, they could. I knew from looking around that they all had friends.

Saturday came, and they were excited. Tony had arranged for two stores to close for 2 hours so we could shop. Mom had got her friends to help. I conned the Murrays and O’Shea’s to help along with the staff and the mates. After lunch, we headed to the hobby shop. Tony had arranged that everything the kids bought was reduced by 50%; we picked up the difference. We spent 1.5 hours there; it was fun watching the kids hide their purchases from each other. Mom had arranged to set up a gift wrapping table in the shop to wrap the gifts as soon as they were bought.

The clerk removed the price as he rang the purchases. It was fun to see the kids’ shop. I knew that the store would probably have to restock after we left. The next stop was the clothing store for those who wanted to go. Those that felt they had completed their shopping took the bus home. They didn’t know it, but Mario had hot chocolate and cookies for them. The women took the girls, and the men took the boys. Again the gifts were wrapped as soon as they were bought. A few of the kids wanted to go to a book store; Tony called ahead and reserved 1 hour for the kids. More buses went home; the book store kids were on one bus. When we got to the book store, they were glad to see us. I guess not many people buy books for Christmas, at least not at this store. Mom set up a wrapping station again, and the books were wrapped as the kids paid for them. While the kids were shopping, I ducked next door to a sports shop and bought 340 baseball caps. I would have bought more, but they didn’t have anymore. Every kid was going to get a baseball cap this year. “Tony, what’s our count now?”

“338 as of today.”

“My Christmas gift to the kids this year is going to be a wristwatch. So Monday, give me a count as to age. That way, I can pick out an appropriate watch. I was thinking of Mickey Mouse watches for the younger kids and then a sports watch for the others. I’ll tell Mom to pick out the girls’ watches.”

“I think the staff wants to give them a gift also.”

“Maybe we should coordinate, so we don’t duplicate any gifts. Let’s meet tonight after the kids go to bed; coffee in the cook shack at 10. Can you let the others know?”

Now my problem what was I going to buy for the staff. That would have to be a special gift for all their work for the kids and me.

When we got home after shopping, everyone was in good spirits. “Let’s trim the tree.”

The night before, Tony, Aaron, and I strung the lights. Turning on the lights, the kids brought their homemade ornaments. I let them decorate the tree. We had to help them reach the high places. When they were finished, we stepped back to admire the tree. The popcorn strings, colored paper ornaments, and the stuffed animals shone as the light reflected their glossy surfaces. The fake cookies added to the homely feeling that surrounded the tree. I reminded the kids that they needed to hang their stockings. The look I got back told me they were confused until I mentioned the special Christmas stockings I had bought them. “Where can we hang them?” Tony pointed to the walls where Abe had installed the fake fireplace.

The kids left and returned with their stockings. Tony and Aaron helped them tack them to the mantel. The kids from the East were a little confused, but they soon got into the spirit of things. “Tony, we need to go shopping for stocking stuffers.”

The following Monday, while the kids were in school, we went and bought candy canes, mixed nuts, chocolates, and small oranges. We had to go to several stores to get 348 of everything. When we arrived home, “Let’s put these in one of the empty offices.”

At the coffee meeting, the decision was to buy the kids some special clothing: gloves, a leather coat, and fur-lined boots. The comment was made that soon we will need to provide lockers for all of their clothing. But that comment raised a valid question. I looked at Tony, and out came his book. I told each of the staff I’d help if they needed more cash. I knew buying 348 gifts would cost a lot of money.

“Tony, estimate what the cost will be for those gifts that the staff is considering, calculate 75% of the most expensive gift, and that’ll be their bonus, which will come from my private funds.” I had decided a long time ago that bonuses would come from my funds and not Sanctuary. “We also need to calculate a bonus for the Captain and his crew. For the other staff, let’s give them a month’s salary as their bonus.”

“Let’s do the same for the Captain and crew. They haven’t been with us a full year, and I think they will be surprised. We should also do that for Peter and his crew.” “OK”

Now I need to give Tony a special gift and the Board members. “Tony, we need to give the Board members a gift, maybe a case of fine wine or something like that.”

“A case of fine wine is a good idea. Let’s go with that. I’ll take care of getting that gift.”

The spare office was beginning to fill up. “Abe, could we expand the corridor to the cook shack so that we could install lockers on the sides. The cocoons are getting too small to hold their personal belongings. Lockers would relieve that.”

“Sure, in fact, you could probably put some lockers in there now. I assume you are looking at half lockers.”

“Yes, they would be large enough to hold their jackets, boots, and any other large items. Can you find the lockers, or should Tony?” I could hear him laugh.

“I’ll get them and might be able to get them installed over the next two days.”

I have great friends; they are willing to do whatever it takes to assist Sanctuary.

That evening at the coffee table in the cook shack, which had become a routine, we discussed the upcoming ship schedule. Captain Rockford said that we could sail along the coast, and we should be able to see several firework displays. “Should we have one of our own? We could set off some rockets from the top of the bridge.” The Captain said he would take care of that as his and the crew’s Christmas gift to the kids.

As we sat there, drinking our coffee, I looked around the table and thanked my maker for the blessing he has shown me. I was a wealthy man with the friends I had. I felt no man could’ve been blessed any more than I. Reflecting on the year, the number of kids had grown to over 300. I never imagined that to have happened. Three kids in college, and this coming year there will be more. I excused myself from the group claiming I was tired and ready to go to bed. I urged them to stay and enjoy the coffee and comradeship.

Sleep came quickly tonight. I felt relaxed and happy with what we’re able to accomplish. But I knew surprises were always around the corner.