My favorite Christmas Memory

At my age I have had plenty of good memories centered around the Christmas Holidays, but my favorite has to be the first Christmas after my first son was born. My wife gave birth to Robert Austin on November 9th of 1979.

My dad had bought me a Lionel Train set for my first Christmas, of course I was ten months old so it made sense for me to get a train set on my first Christmas. A Christmas tradition had been born. My wife, thought I was crazy, when I told her I was going to buy Rob a train set for Christmas, unfortunately that was just one of the first of many instances when she felt I was a little off center.

Rob was not much help opening presents that first year, he kind of just laid there. I opened the train and all the accessories I had bought and set up the train set in the middle of the living room floor. Once I got the train running, I placed him in the center of the train track circle and took his picture. I had him a little too close to the track and his arm knocked the train off the track about the second time the train came around.

I'm pretty sure he gave me a big thumbs up and I know he smiled when I honked the train whistle!

Sue said he was just passing gas, but I know he loved the train. And I had a blast playing with it all morning.

Robert Vian

Reprinted from 2013