Richelle Hofer

Two of the best Christmases I ever had started out with the feeling that Christmas was ruined.

Sometimes life is crazy. Things rarely go as planned. We roll up to the Christmas season with great expectations and often feel disappointed and defeated when curveballs threaten our plans.

I think about “expectations” a lot (and wrote about them in “Shifting Expectations”). Sometimes I think they are our worst enemy. It is a constant battle to keep our expectations OFF of people, OFF of circumstances, and on things that really matter.

Growing up, we spent nearly every Christmas Eve at my Grandma Helen’s house and Christmas Day at my Grandma Marilyn’s house. Even when my family lived hundreds of miles from my grandparents, we made the trek back to South Dakota nearly every Christmas. There were only a few Christmases while we were living away that we didn’t get to come back for one reason or another. One such Christmas happened in 1990.  I was 11 years old.

I believe that the main reason we didn’t travel that Christmas was because we just didn’t have the money. We were living in Toluca, IL and we had just started a brand new church. Money was very tight. My sister Melissa and I were doing paper routes to earn our own money. My sister Heather had just turned 2 years old.

A few weeks before Christmas my dad took me aside to teach me a very important lesson. He taught me about investing. He gave a very simplistic lesson about allowing an institution to use your money in exchange for interest. He told me that 7% was a typical rate of return (I didn’t say his lesson was perfect – ha ha!) and that if you earn 7% for 10 years, you double your money. I thought that sounded pretty good. My dad said that I could invest in him and that he would give me an even better rate. He would double my money in ONE year! I agreed that I would make that investment. I went to my dresser drawer and took out $50 and invested it in my dad. 

I didn’t find out until many years later, but the “investment” that I’d made in my dad allowed him to buy Christmas presents that year.

He and my mom went to the Dollar Store in Winona IL and purchased presents for all three of us girls with that investment. We got Lincoln Logs, a puzzle, and a Chess board. 

I remember this Christmas most because after we opened the gifts, we spent the rest of the day as a family putting the puzzle together, building things with Lincoln Logs and learning how to play Chess. 

Over that Christmas break we spent a LOT of time learning Chess and challenging each other to little “tournaments”.

Years later, as an adult I bought my dad a more expensive Chess set. I brought that Chess set home from Custer with me after he passed away. Every time I see a Chess set I’m reminded of this Christmas.

Leading up to Christmas in 1990, we all felt really disappointed. I was a kid so I didn’t understand the financial worries, but my mom and dad had to have felt like they were going to completely disappoint their kids on Christmas.

And I am sure that in the moment I DID feel disappointed. I am sure that there was something I was really hoping for that I didn’t get that Christmas. But guess what, I don’t remember what it was.

The only thing that stood the test of time was the happy memories of learning Chess with my dad. I recall it as one of the most memorable and special Christmases I ever had.

If you’re feeling like Christmas might be ruined this year, shift your expectations, buy a Chess board and subscribe to my blog because I’ve got another story to share with you about the hardest and best Christmas of my life. 🙂