The Spirit of the Grinch lives on

It’s three days ‘til Christmas and a Facebook post from nine years ago popped up on my feed. I was DONE wrapping Christmas gifts early because it was an act of futility. We had our very own Grinch that was stealing packages from under the Christmas tree. I noticed one package missing and retrieved it after a search of the Grinch’s bedroom.

Later, I found an empty box from another present. My husband found the gift and wrapping paper. Can you guess where? Yes, the Grinch had struck again.

Upon further inspection of the wrapping paper, there was the gift wrap from another present inside that I had yet not missed. It was a gift for my 5-year-old great-niece.

What in the world was the Grinch going to do with that?

For those of you that don’t know, the Grinch that year was my husband’s brother Bill who had lived with us since 2003, when his mother passed. Bill was a unique individual. He was born with Down Syndrome and had already reached a rather advanced age for individuals with that condition. Most people with Downs usually only make it to their 30s due to other health issues. Heart conditions are a common occurrence and Bill had been dealing with congestive heart failure (CHF) for many years. Nine years ago, Bill was 58. We lost him in 2022 to pneumonia just a few months before his 63rd birthday. He was only the second person with Downs our doctor had heard of that made it to that age. He was well past his “sell by date.”

In many ways, Bill was like a 7-year-old. In other ways he was a grumpy-old-man. The 7-year-old couldn’t resist the packages under the tree. It was also the 7-year-old that couldn’t read the names on the packages. Maybe if he could, it would have only been his gifts that disappeared. What child can resist opening packages at Christmas? He was like any other kid, yet most kids manage to leave the packages alone rather than getting in trouble. It’s difficult to discipline a child in a 58-year-old man’s body. The grump didn’t like to listen to reason.

The final solution to the problem was to quit wrapping. Sometimes you must stop efforts in futility. Did I give up? No. I surrendered. There is a difference.

They say the definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing over and over and expect different results. To keep wrapping would have been insane.

Instead, I posted on Facebook to warn family they may receive their gifts in a Walmart bag and if they didn’t receive an expected gift, it wasn’t that we forgot, we just hadn’t realized that another gift had been confiscated by the Grinch.

The Grinch may be gone, but there has been a residual effect. After nine years I was reminded today that it is December 22 and I have not yet wrapped a single gift. It may be Walmart bags again this year. Oh, well, it’s not the end on the world. At least I’m done shopping!

The spirit of the Grinch is still in the air. Merry Christmas Bill.