DEAR ABBY: Last December you ran a letter in your column from "Feeling Like the Grinch." The writer complained about an elderly neighbor coming over on Christmas morning as gifts were being opened. Let me tell you what happened to us.
When the first grandchild in our family was about 3, my brother reluctantly informed my husband and me that he and his wife wanted to keep Christmas morning "private," and we should discontinue the family tradition of being together at their home for Santa Claus, etc.
At the crack of dawn on Christmas morning, we received an S.O.S. phone call asking us to please forgive them and to get over there FAST! They said when their little boy woke up and walked into the living room, he plopped himself down on the sofa, crying, "Some Christmas -- nobody's HERE!"
Abby, from a child's perspective, sharing can be the whole enchilada. -- DOTING AUNT IN GEORGIA
DEAR DOTING AUNT: From the mouths of babes ... The spirit of Christmas is all about sharing. How nice that someone in that family understood it before it was too late.