This is an article submitted to a 1999 Louisville Sentinel contest to find out who had the wildest
Christmas dinners. This won first prize.
Christmas With Louise
As a joke, my brother used to hang a pair of panty hose over his fireplace before Christmas. He
said all he wanted was for Santa to fill them. What they say about Santa checking the list twice
must be true because every Christmas morning, although Jay's kids' stockings were overflowed,
his poor pantyhose hung sadly empty.
One year I decided to make his dream come true. I put on sunglasses and went in search of an
inflatable love doll. They don't sell those things at Walmart. I had to go to an adult
bookstore downtown.
If you've never been in an X-rated store, don't go. You'll only confuse yourself. I was there an
hour saying things like, What does this do? You're kidding me! Who would buy that? Finally, I
made it to the inflatable doll section.
I wanted to buy a standard, uncomplicated doll that could also substitute as a passenger in my
truck so I could use the car pool lane during rush hour.
Finding what I wanted was difficult. Love Dolls come in many different models. The top of the
line, according to the side of the box, could do things I'd only seen in a book on animal
husbandry. I settled for Lovable Louise. She was at the bottom of the price scale.
To call Louise a doll took a huge leap of imagination.
On Christmas Eve and with the help of an old bicycle pump, Louise came to life.
My sister-in-law was in on the plan and let me in during the wee morning hours. Long after
Santa had come and gone, I filled the dangling pantyhose with Louise's pliant legs and bottom.
I also ate some cookies and drank what remained of a glass of milk on a nearby tray. I went
home, and giggled for a couple of hours.
The next morning my brother called to say that Santa had been to his house and left a present
that had made him VERY happy but had left the dog confused. She would bark, start to walk away,
then come back and bark some more.
We all agreed that Louise should remain in her panty hose so the rest of the family could
admire her when they came over for the traditional Christmas dinner.
My grandmother noticed Louise the moment she walked in the door. What the hell is that?
she asked.
My brother quickly explained, It's a doll.
Who would play with something like that? Granny snapped.
I had several candidates in mind, but kept my mouth shut.
Where are her clothes? Granny continued.
Boy, that turkey sure smells nice, Gran,Jay said, to steer her into dining room.
But Granny was relentless. Why doesn't she have any teeth?
Again, I could have answered, but why would I? It was Christmas and no one wanted to ride in the
back of the ambulance saying, Hang on Granny, hang on!
My grandfather, a delightful old man with poor eyesight, sidled up to me and said, Hey, who's
the naked gal by the fireplace?
I told him she was Jay's friend.
A few minutes later I noticed Grandpa by the mantel, talking to Louise. Not just talking, but
actually flirting. It was then that we realized this might be Grandpa's last Christmas at home.
The dinner went well. We made the usual small talk about who had died, who was dying, and who
should be killed, when suddenly Louise made a noise like my father in the bathroom in the
morning. Then she lurched from the panty hose, flew around the room twice, and fell in a heap in
front of the sofa.
The cat screamed. I passed cranberry sauce through my nose, and Grandpa ran across the room,
fell to his knees, and began administering mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. My brother fell back
over his chair and wet his pants.
Granny threw down her napkin, stomped out of the room, and sat in the car.
It was indeed a Christmas to treasure and remember.
Later in my brother's garage, we conducted a thorough examination to decide the cause of
Louise's collapse. We discovered that Louise had suffered from a hot ember to the back of her
right thigh.
Fortunately, thanks to a wonder drug called duct tape, we restored her to perfect health!
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Sharpening Made Easy: A Primer on Sharpening Knives and Other Edged Tools by Steve Bottorff
Copyright January 2002 Knife World Publications www.sharpeningmadeeasy.com E-mail: steve AT
sharpeningmadeeasy DOT com