“Daddy?” “Yes, Pumpkin?” “Can you make me a station for my train?” “Of course. Do you want a big one or a little one?” “Um, a little one.” “OK, I’ll make you one for Christmas, short stuff.” “Promise?” “I promise.” That was right after Halloween. I figured I had PLENTY of time. Then things happened, and it just sorta slipped my mind… Until today at work. A customer, who knows I sometimes make wooden toys, asked me what I’d made my girls forChristmas this year… oh, crap! Since we closed early, I STILL had time to keep that promise made so blithely two months ago… maybe… I hope. 7PM, Christmas Eve…I gulped my dinner and scrounged up some coroplast and some wood scraps, and got to work
8:30, It’s starting to look like a train station, I think… or maybe a section house?
9:45, “It’s a Wonderful Life” is talking to itself on the television, and I’m busily slopping on the first coat of color even though the glue is definitely not quite dry.
11:30, It took 3 tries to get the roof to look half decent… “haste makes waste” … and frustration!
1 AM, Christmas Morning… Is it finished yet? No. But the base coats of paint need to dry a bit more before I can give it a final coat. Patience, patience…Try to rush now too much and it will just ruin everything…
2:15AM, Promise kept, if barely. She may not even remember the conversation, but I did… And I kept my word to my little girl.
I’ll post a pic of her opening it. Until then, Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!
