"Daddy?" "Yes, Pumpkin?" "Can you make me a station for my train?" "Of course. Do you want a big one or a little one?" "Um, a little one." "OK, I'll make you one for Christmas, short stuff." "You promise?" "I promise."

That was right after Halloween 2009. I figured I had PLENTY of time. Then things happened, and it just sorta slipped my mind.... Until  Dec 24,at work. - A customer, who knows I sometimes make wooden toys, asked me what I'd made my girls for Christmas this year, and.... Oh, crap!

Since we closed early, I STILL had time to keep that promise made so blithely two months before...... maybe...... So I hoped.

7PM, Christmas Eve...I gulped my dinner, put Bing Crosby on the stereo, scrounged up some coroplast and some wood scraps, and settled down for a long night's work.

By 8:30, It was starting to look something like a train station... or maybe a section house?

9:45PM, "It's a Wonderful Life" is talking to itself on the television, and there I was, busily slopping on the first coat of color even though the glue was definitely not quite dry.

11:30PM, It took 3 tries to get the roof to look half decent.... "haste makes waste" ... and complete frustration!

1 AM, Christmas Morning.... Is it finished yet? No. But the base coats of paint need to dry a bit more before I can give it a final coat. Patience, patience... Trying to rush things too much at that point would have just ruined everything.... 

2:15AM, Promise kept! - if barely. She may not have even remembered the conversation, but I did.... And I kept my word to my little girl.

Christmas morning: She said "It's just the right size!", put it with her trains.... then watched a movie the rest of the afternoon.

She was 9... So I didn't expect much.  But the station name will always be a reminder to me.