Christmas ornaments

Dear Dan,

Mom has a favorite Christmas story about you that she likes to tell. You were born with a stomach ulcer and cried for food all the time because of it. When you learned to crawl you hunted for food, eating  everything in sight - whether it was edible or not.

It was probably your second Christmas when mom went into the living room and found you sitting there with your mouth bleeding. On closer inspection she found the remains of some glass ornaments that had been hanging on the tree.

Mom decided then and there something had to be done or a) there would be no ornaments left and b) you would bleed to death. She took all the ornaments and put them away.

Mom enlisted Scott's aid in baking several dozen Christmas cookies. They then decorated all the cookies. They hung all the cookies and mom realized the tree was a little crooked. Scott was about six at the time and very tall for his age. Mom had Scott hold the tree while she loosened the screws in the tree basin. She stepped back to look at the tree and give direction to positioning the tree.

Standing there she made comment on how beautiful the tree looked. Scott said "Let me see" and stepped away from the tree.

Down goes the tree and smash go the cookies.

Once again they baked and decorated dozens of cookies. Once again they decorated the tree. This time mom made sure the tree was secure before anyone stepped away.

You, Dan, added your special touch. All the cookies on the bottom row had bites taken from them in your quest for food.