Kermit balanced a chest high package on his walker as he pushed his way up my front steps. The walker made clanking sounds as he painfully climbed to my home's entryway. If anyone were to observe his progress, they would have seen that he was not having an easy time. He reached over the side of his walker and leaned on my doorbell. Kermit rang several times.

My face exploded into a big grin as I opened the door. "Hey Kermit, what's up my friend?"

He wheezed, "I got'cha a Christmas present."

I could tell that he was out of breath from his climb up my steps.
"Oh my gosh, it's huge!" I exclaimed, as I took the package from him.

The package was ornately wrapped with gaudy Christmas paper and ribbons, topped with a large nosed Santa on a spring.

"You must have used several rolls of paper to get this sucker wrapped." I gushed.

Kermit snorted: "I didn't do it.  Had my number two daughter and my grand kids wrap it up for me. They seemed to think that a Christmas present should look like a Christmas present."

I thanked Kermit for the present. "Come on in, Claudia has some fresh cinnamon rolls."

Kermit shook his head. "Got'ta go. Got lots more Christmas packages to deliver."

Kermit turned around and painfully worked his way down our steps and out to his car.

I couldn't help but think of him as sort of a cranky old Santa, spreading joy in his own dysfunctional way.

I hauled the box over to my Christmas tree. Claudia walked in and asked me who was out our door. I told her that Kermit had just dropped off a present.

Claudia looked pained. "Where are we going to put that box? It's too big to fit under the tree.  What is it with that strange Santa on a spring?"

I laughed. "We'll find out on Christmas."

I had to admit, that I was puzzled. I didn't have the slightest idea what was in the huge box. Judging from the bouncing Santa, it might be a joke of some kind, although Kermit wasn't like my friend Harry. Kermit wasn't the sort of person who'd give joke presents.

The days until Christmas seemed to drag by. The box competed with our Christmas tree and dominated our front room. We busied ourselves with our other December activities. We participated in our Church Christmas pageant, attended the Toy and Joy Auction, rang bells for the Salvation Army, collected baby food and books and helped assemble Christmas food baskets for Holiday hope.

Christmas arrived, we exchanged presents with family, we ate and watched our children and grand children open presents, and then it was our turn.

I dragged the mystery package out. The spring mounted Santa bobbed back and forth as I carefully unwrapped the reams of gaudy paper.

"Don't lose that Santa;" instructed my wife

I handed the gaudy paper to my wife, put the big nosed Santa aside and looked at the Box. It was labeled "EZ to use Electric Leaf Blower and Vacuum."

"Wow!"  I exclaimed

My wife stared at the box. "It's winter, we don't have any more leaves. Where are we going to store that huge box?"

I brightened "We can put our lawn mower in the garage and store the blower in our garden shed. I just can't wait to try it out on our leaves next year."

The next year came and went, and I forgot about the leaf blower. Several years passed, and it wasn't until late summer this year when I decided to clean out our garden shed that I re-discovered the blower.
I spent most of the afternoon trying to figure out how to assemble it. There were numerous attachments and even with the instruction manual (written in French, Spanish, Korean, and Hindi) I still couldn't figure out how they were all used.

I did my best to assemble the blower. I plugged it in and switched it on and it seemed to work. It had power, I aimed it at our cat and my wife screamed at me.

Now, all I needed were some leaves.

I put the blower away and patiently waited for fall.

It was approaching Halloween. The trees had filled our driveway with leaves. My wife informed me that we needed to rake or sweep our leaves before someone slipped on them.  I was not about to rake or sweep this time. I approached the situation armed with my EZ Leaf Blower and Vacuum.
I plugged it in and aimed it at my driveway. Leaves started flying.

"Wow!" I muttered to myself. "This thing is really powerful."

I moved the blower and leaves swirled. I was overcome with joy; this was really fun. I aimed the blower at a huge pile, and the entire pile went "Whump." 

I had full control, the blower really worked. It worked well, I had complete control, and I was able to do in minutes what it would have normally taken me hours of sweeping and raking. I moved the leaves off my lawn, off my driveway, off the street. I was so proud. I ran into the house telling my wife of my accomplishments.

She seemed pleased. I assured her that I didn't aim it at the cat and that we now had a beautiful leaf free lawn.

We did too. We had a beautiful leaf free lawn and driveway and it lasted almost an entire day.

Next morning, everything again was covered with leaves.

I'm still pleased. I'm most grateful to friend Kermit for my blower and I take comfort in the knowledge that by December all of the leaves will be down.

I wonder if the blower will work on snow?