Gifts to melt hearts, and seats

We left you on Friday with the Barbieri family having solved their gremlin invasion — and our promise to continue sharing some Christmas gift stories.

There is absolutely no choice today but to start selfishly. In other words, discussing a gift I wished someone had given me.

Not exactly the proper spirit of Christmas, but maybe you’ll understand...

See, I’m a complete nut for soccer and ice hockey.

My love of hockey, in fact, lured me out of journalism and into public relations for the one and only time in my life.

Yep, I took a job as vice president of communications for a National Hockey League team.

Later, back in the writing game, I did a book on my beloved San Jose Sharks called “Feeding Frenzy.”

I’M CAPTIVATED by hockey history.

So I was floored and insanely jealous when pal Glenn Robinson — he’s the guy who puts those clever sayings on the marquee at Davis Donuts — mentioned his best-ever Christmas gift.

Turns out his wife presented him with an original seat from the old Montreal Forum, and there’s never been better hockey than was witnessed in that building.

If you ever want to sell, Glenn...

Now then, how about someone giving instead of receiving?

Coeur d’Alene’s “capo di tutti capi” Steve Widmyer actually came up with the perfect response.

“My best Christmas memory, really, involved my wife (Marie),” Widmyer said. “She’d always talked about how her greatest gift ever was a Mrs. Beasley doll that she got when she was young.”

As an aside, Mrs. Beasley celebrates a 50th anniversary this year, as part of the 1967 TV show “Family Affair” — and those dolls have been hot property every year since then.

Anyway, the mayor decided to find his bride another Mrs. Beasley doll.

“I looked high and low, and it took me about 10 years,” he said, “but it was worth it to give her the present she remembered so well.”

Perfect.

QUICK ASIDE: If your gift tale didn’t make it into print, my apologies. But we’ll do this again.

And thanks for chipping in.

Now finally, a lovely story of Christmas from attorney and good friend Duane Rasmussen.

“The best gift was three dollars,” Duane said. “It was in the mid-1950s. My parents and I had just driven past the Silver Dollar Bar at Haugan, Mont., and were climbing up toward Lookout Pass.

“We didn’t make it, and slid off the road into a snow bank.

“As a young pastor, my father was traveling with limited funds. He had a young wife and a baby in the car.

“My parents did what came natural to them. They prayed.

“It seemed like an answer to their prayer when a man arrived and said that for a fee, he and some friends could help them reach the summit.

“My father felt he had little choice. The price was three dollars.

“When the rescue was complete, my father gave up the money and turned to walk back to our car.

“And there on the ground, partially covered with snow, lay three silver dollars.”

Merry Christmas to all, and see you next week.

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Steve Cameron is a columnist for The Press. Follow A Brand New Day at facebook.com/BrandNewDayCDAPress. Email: [email protected]