Originally Posted by K-Roll

Yikes Anoka OK my ornament will go in the mail tomorrow....I will post when it's mailed. It's been hanging up waiting in my workroom and uh - became part of the background!!

OK - I guess you could say this is my favorite childhood Christmas memory...it's the one that always pops to mind when I remember those days.
My father was a large tall man who always seemed like a giant to us, he was about 6'3". On top of that, he had what you might call a volcanic temper and we kids were often fearful if he seemed in a bad mood. Truly, he was a brilliant guy; a loving father, though it didn't always seem that way.
Anyway, one Christmas as we sat around our aluminum tree with the color wheel going and everything right with the world, my mother hands him one last present, to him from her: a small box, with a little pearl-handled derringer inside, and the ammo to go with it.
"Well I'll be darned!" Dad says. "A little gun. Does it work?" (The derringer was about 3 and 1/2 inches from barrel to grip.) "Of course it works," Mom says, "it came with the little shells, see?"
Dad has a look on his face of surprise and delight; we can tell he likes it, he really likes it. He is sitting in his armchair, feet up on his ottoman, and loads the little weapon. He then raises his foot, takes aim, and shoots himself in the big toe. All us kids just fall out laughing. He leaps up cursing and starts hopping around on the good foot.
"What did you do THAT for?!!??" my mother cries out, distressed. Dad continues to curse, and us kids cannot stop laughing. Our father has literally shot himself in the foot. I remember my mother tries to hush us, saying it isn't funny, but she starts to laugh, too, and before long Dad is shaking his head at himself and smiling.
End of story! He didn't break anything, just caused pain.
It didn't ruin our Christmas: made it memorable. We were so in awe of him, and here he did something dumb, like us kids would do. (None of us dared repeat what he always said about us: "All brains, and no common sense!")
Truly magical.