Four-year-old Chester slid slowly out from out from underneath the covers. His mother had prompted him to get out of bed, for it was Christmas morning. He was sleepy-eyed and reluctant.

“Go to the front room,” his mother urged.

This command of course meant nothing to him, except that he anticipated something in the eagerness of his mother’s voice.

Since it was a holiday, the family didn’t hear the clink of bottles on the back porch that morning. The milkman had taken the day off. The TV, a big black box in the front room, would not bellow out the Captain Kangaroo episodes this morning. The only human forms would be the figures in the manger scene perched on the small table in the front room.

Now awake, Chester sauntered down the hallway, past the kitchen with its Santa Claus oven mitts hanging from the stove, past the colorful lights framing the window. He rubbed his eyes as he walked forward, barely awake.

The boy entered the room and glanced up. There stood a brightly-lit and bushy pine tree, full of ornaments and tinsel commanding the center of the room. What caught his eyes were the dozens of colorful packages underneath the tree, topped with bows and ribbons, with everything looking like a burst of fireworks on a dark night.

Chester stood still. He was electrified. His eyes grew wide and he caught his breath. He had never seen anything like this before.

He shrieked a loud peal of happy joy. His voice echoed through the house to the delight of his mom and dad, who stood and watched quietly in the corner of the room, as if to be out of sight.

But Chester’s joy was not complete.

“Rebecca, come here!” he cried out. He kept his gaze fixed on the spectacle before him, as if closing his eyes would make it all disappear.

He could hardly take it all in. He stamped his feet in happy delight. The tree seemed monstrous with its pungent aroma of pine, with its garlands and lavish decorations. The whole scene was bathed in the morning sun that sent beams of light through the large picture window.

Too excited to talk

Hardly able to say anything, Chester trotted hurriedly into the hallway toward the back of the house, gleefully calling out to his sister. He would not be satisfied until she got out of bed and enjoyed the marvelous scene with him. Chester took her by both hands and walked her to the front room. Rebecca stood and gazed at the tree, smiling at the sight of it all while taking in the joy of everyone else.

The two of them went up to the gifts under the tree and eagerly touched and shook the wrapped items, wondering what was inside.

It was as if Chester knew in some hidden way, that the tree, its beauty and the gifts were all for him — for them, for the whole family to enjoy. He had no idea where it all came from. He didn’t wonder why. And yet he felt that his joy could only be fulfilled if he shared his happiness with his sister and his mom and dad.

Eventually, Chester grew up, got married, and bought a portion of his uncle’s soybean farm in Kentucky. Farmwork was in his blood, he heard family members say. But crops alone didn’t support a family nowadays, especially with a child on the way, so he and his wife raised Labrador Retrievers to sell.

One early winter morning Chester made his morning trip to their kennel to feed the pups. It was over the small hill, or knob as they called it in this part of the country. They had built the kennel on the far side of the knob so that the yapping of the pups would be out of earshot from the neighbors.

Chester looked up at the red morning sky and felt the cold breeze on his cheeks. He had not yet turned on his cell phone that morning, but that was fine with him. This special moment should be sheltered from others’ intrusions.

Yesterday’s fallen snow crunched underneath his boots. As he rounded the top of the knob he began to hear the barking of the dogs, hungry for breakfast. He gazed at the lacey tree limbs outlined against the sky and smelled the sweet odor of burning hardwood from his family’s stove that had filled the small valley. He happily recalled that Christmas morning long ago when he was so young when he had discovered such wonders of life underneath the Christmas tree.

Today, raising soybeans and building the kennel had been a lot of work for him and his wife. But they were taking the beauty of the wilderness and making it all work for them. It was all a gift, all a gift, for him and his family.