Best gift of Xmas

My family probably opened more than 100 presents Christmas morning, but the best gift was never put under the tree, was not wrapped and didn't cost a dollar. It wasn't even for me! It was a photo album of a rarely-admired subject: garbage trucks. Huh?

A few mornings before the holiday my sister heard a knock at the front door. She opened it in her bathrobe and found the garbage man standing there. He handed her a thick photo album and said it was for her three little boys. Apparently every Wednesday at 7:30 a.m. for the past two years my nephews (aged 3, 3, and 5) have run outside in their pjs to greet the garbage men and stare in awe at the amazing machine they operate. The boys chase the truck up the block as it sucks down smelly refuse and watch the men work.

Now, how many people admire garbage men like these boys? Not many, I'm guessing, which is why this one garbage man put together an album of dozens of pictures (okay, I guess it cost a few dollars) of trucks collecting trash, smashing it down, and ejecting it at the dump. There are also many pictures of him and his colleagues smiling and waving in their stained jumpsuits. Now there's a gift to warm your heart.