Sometimes the simplest things are the most memorable.

You may find it strange to talk about Christmas and tomatoes, but let me tell you my story.

We knew it was going to be a hard Christmas. My therapy of three to five times per week was absorbing all our income and then some. It would be hard for me to get therapy over Christmas. That would make the pain almost unbearable. It would also make it hard for me to sit, stand or even breathe. Even with my husband being off, we knew it would be rough.

There really wasn’t anything either of us desperately needed or wanted, so we decided not to buy presents for each other. That way we’d have enough money for therapy.

We also bought few presents for anyone else. Hoping no one would mind, we put that money toward therapy as well.

Although my spouse didn’t mind, it bothered me that he didn’t have any brightly colored presents under the tree to unwrap. The more I thought about it, the sadder I felt.

Before I could get to the pity-party stage, the phone rang. It was one of our neighbors. He said he had been thinking about us and thought he had something we might like to have for Christmas.

In the course of the conversation, he explained. As we knew, he had a large garden that summer. The tomatoes had done well, except for the ones the deer had eaten.

Toward the end of September, around frost time, he took the last of the green tomatoes off the vine. Then he wrapped each one carefully and stored it in his mother’s basement.

According to the neighbor, the tomatoes were ready—perfect for our Christmas dinner. We got in the van and drove to pick up the tomatoes and, after visiting awhile, drove home.

We came in the warm house, plugged in the Christmas tree and turned on the Christmas music. There, as we sat by the tree and in front of the wood stove, we counted our blessings.
We were grateful for all the usual things such as food and heat and a place to call home. Before we were done, we realized how blest we truly were.

The list grew and grew. Finally, we added Christmas and tomatoes.

We may not have had everything this Christmas, but we learned that sometimes the simplest things are the most memorable. That is why I will always remember this Christmas and the gift of the tomatoes.

Katie Martin lives in Danbury, N.C.