Many of you older Treepers remember praying for my grandson Conner five years ago last fall when he was a baby undergoing open heart surgery at Vanderbilt. The two holes in Conner’s heart were easily repaired and he is now a healthy little boy.
He and his older brother are autistic. Last year I posted The Christmas Pumpkin, the story of my first adventure making a special gift for Conner. Copying part from that post last year, here is the story behind the Christmas Pumpkin. Incidentally, if I remember correctly, the original story was my most popular post ever according to the WordPress stats.
Conner’s great love is pumpkins, all year round. He loves every single pumpkin, big or small, real or artificial. A few months ago he told me that all pumpkins are his, every one of them. So, if you had a pumpkin on your porch or decorating your Thanksgiving table, say a prayer of gratitude that Conner let you borrow it!
Fall has always been my favorite time of the year, and the last two years I’ve had a new reason to love it. Last fall Conner had only been in school for a few months, and he was mostly still non verbal then. His inability to communicate, along with the many issues associated with autism, sensory issues especially, made life very difficult for him, and it was not usually a good idea to take him out in public.
However, he had just found pumpkins, and his enthusiasm captivated me, so I bought him a pumpkin, a real one, at the grocery store. His love for it, and desire to take it everywhere he went, and even to sleep with it, made me think he needed an artificial one to play with.
So, I took him to Hobby Lobby because I wanted him to experience the wall of pumpkins in the front of the store, and the aisles full of all sizes and color pumpkins. He wasn’t too sure about the store at first, and I still remember his little thin (at that time he wasn’t eating well) body trembling.
Oh, but he loved those pumpkins and it isn’t an exaggeration at all to tell you that he carefully looked at each offering before he chose his pumpkin. There were a few aisles of Christmas decor, of course, so I thought maybe he would be interested in a Santa or a tree, and I just wanted to get him things he would love.
He seemed to think that he had to choose one thing, even though I kept reassuring him that he could pick another present or two. He adamantly shook his head and refused my every suggestion, but finally reached his little hand toward an old pickup truck with two blocks in the bed that had numbers on each surface. It was a little Advent calendar.
He snatched his hand back before he touched it, but I bought it for him anyhow. It’s now a part of his family’s Christmas decor, but it never got to pumpkin status in his love.
This year when I took him to Hobby Lobby he was a different little boy. In his second year of attending a wonderful school where he has learned so many things, including language skills, he’s able to express himself like any other excited four year old, and many things have changed for Conner.
He wanted each and every pumpkin, and tried to put dozens in the buggy. As I said, he considered all of them his, and just wanted to bring them home.
After a lot of haggling and laughter, I finally negotiated the purchase of three pumpkins. I told him he could have any three small medium and large pumpkins he wanted. He put a lot of thought and exploration into his choices, and in the end, it was quite clear that each one was chosen to meet mostly sensory pleasures.
The largest was a regular orange pumpkin that looked very real. The next was a velvet pumpkin, brightly colored and so soft and wonderful to stroke. The little one was a different color, and one he could easily carry around with him. He insisted on taking them all with him to therapy appointments, and he would arrange them in display on the tables or shelves.
A few weeks ago he began to ask for a Christmas pumpkin. Of course, pumpkins are long gone from roadside stands and even Hobby Lobby. And who has ever heard of Christmas pumpkins? Conner is nothing if not persistent, and he kept asking.
So, I ordered a white pumpkin and went searching for some Christmas decorations I could stick on it. This is what I came up with, and it won’t win any art awards or set any decor trends. But the bright colors and flashy stars are right down his alley, and his smile was absolutely ample reward for the little bit of trouble it was to make what is our first Christmas pumpkin.
Unfortunately, the pumpkin did not survive. So this year I upgraded to a metal pumpkin. I found little battery lights and wound them through the metal ribs, and finished it off with bright red bows. It’s just as absolutely ugly as last year’s pumpkin, and he loves it just as much. He called it his pumpkin lamp and hugged it close when I gave it to him.
This is a picture of him in the pumpkin hat I made him for Halloween.
Thank you God, for giving us Conner, and thank you to all Treepers out there who fell for Conner as they prayed for him during surgery, and who have continued to ask for updates and Conner news.
I hope you have your own special gift story to share with us. Merry Christmas!
As a grandmother with a similar grandson words can not describe the love and joy that these little Angels bring into our lives. Thank you for your story.
How blessed you both are to have each other in your lives.
Merry Christmas!
Thank you for sharing this joyful story of this precious little boy and his love of pumpkins. These are the things that truly matter in life and warm our hearts. God Bless you and your family and have a Merry Christmas.
God Bless Conner, we are Blessed with thirteen grandchildren. Each one, all beautiful by God’s hand and individual. This is His Greatest Love. Nothing compares to life given to each of Us. Merry Christmas to all. I am eternally grateful for my Life and equally grateful to find this Refuge.
Thank you so much for sharing this with us. There is nothing in life as precious as our little ones!
I wish everyone here at the Treehouse a Christmas full of the peace and warmth which comes from our connections to family and friends! And for those who are struggling with the circumstances so many of us are dealing with, prayers for comfort.
God bless this place of refuge and faith.
Beautiful story. Beautiful child! Merry Christmas!
I love the stories about Conner. They are just so precious. And, he is in my prayers every night.
Cute story. I, too, have a thing for pumpkins. I especially love to carve them. Afterwards, I admire them for a while and then give them away. If Conner lived close to me, he’d get a carved pumpkin every fall.
Conner is blessed by God, and close, close to him. However, I do think that God gets real belly laughs at our expense. Conner resembles a fallen angel. The picture above is a sweet and silly one and does not do him justice. He is a beautiful boy, but wow, he can act like a little devil.
Right now his mother has Covid and they are all quarantined. He is about to drive all of them insane. His last caper was gluing everything on the vanity down. He had the audacity to then ask for super glue when they got it up. ???
I’m so glad you added this piece of information to complete the picture. My daughter, who’ll turn 17 in January, has autism as well. I haven’t seen her in two years because she doesn’t want to. It’s “too difficult” for her, because it causes too much stress. She’s smart, but refuses to go to school. Her life is the internet and she doesn’t leave her room unless she has to. She has lived in a crisis facility for over two years, but last Monday she finally agreed to go to a clinic for girls with autism and severe emotional and behavioral problems. She will undoubtedly resist therapy. I hope and I pray that she’ll find someone she can bond with over there. Right now, I’m worried as hell.
Saying a special prayer for you and your daughter this evening. I am asking God to carry you both to a better place and to keep you there ❤️
Merry Christmas Doug!
Merry Christmas to you Sundance and good luck to your family and those two young men.
This is Menagerie and her grandsons.
Thank you Menagerie for sharing Conner with us. I think children like Conner are God’s way of teaching us how to love unconditionally. Have a very Merry Christmas!
Beautiful! Thank you, Menagerie!
That is the most disturbing and yet the most beautiful pumpkin I have ever seen! 😉
Peace Love & MAGA
P.S. Give that boy a NY hug
I can’t believe it’s been 5 years but I remember the first post about his surgery clearly. I’m so happy for your family that he is well. Thank you for sharing this pumpkin story. I missed it the first time you posted it but truly it is beautiful. God bless you and your family. Merry Christmas.
https://abc7.com/pumpkin-pie-libbys-nestle/5658262/
Morton, Illinois- Pumpkin Capitol of the world (one of the few things this state does right). Hope you and Conner have a visit there one day. Merry Christmas!
Thank you Menagerie,
Your words softens an internal bitterness.
We had our first grandchild in September, and another from our younger son and his wife are due in May.
Cheers, and God Bless PDJT.
That is awesome! Love the smile.
Pure and happy, just like smiles are supposed to be!!
Merry Christmas and may all of us get the opportunity to borrow a Conner Christmas Pumpkin. 🙂
Thank you for sharing your love for Conner and Conner’s love for pumpkins with us. Have an incredible Christmas!
Thank you for sharing such a wonderful, beautiful and very inspiring story. It brought tears of happiness to my eyes and a great feeling of joy. Thank you!! God Bless your family.
I remember praying for Conner at the time of his surgery.
So much of life is tenuous and precious.
Merry Christmas to you and Conner and the rest of your loved ones!!!
Thank you for a very inspiring post.
This is new to me. I love it.
Beautiful story, Menagerie! Thank you for sharing with all the details of how Conner has developed and his continued love of pumpkins, all kinds!.
Merry Christmas to you and yours!
This absolutely beautiful story, of this precious child, reinforces my belief that I am truly blessed to be a part of the Treeper family.
Reading about Connor always makes me cry, in a good way. The pumpkin lamp is beautiful.
Last year, we couldn’t afford to get our boys anything – between rent, and bills, it just wasn’t happening. We figured, well, they were little (two, and a couple months,) and family would get them things, so we mostly let it go. But this year we have a strapping almost-three-year-old (the first week of January) and a rambunctious one-year-old. We had to get them something.
It took some doing, between all the usual bills plus added medical bills, job hopping, and patchy employment, but we’ve managed. From where I’m sitting, if I turn my head slightly I can see two bulging stockings hanging above the TV beneath the baby pictures – balls, Hot Wheels, and Sixlet-filled candy-cane shapes. In the chest the TV is sitting on, there are two Little People small cars, and two toddler airplane sets, already wrapped.
Tomorrow night we’re off to visit my mother and do Christmas with her and her boyfriend. She’s sent me pictures of the absolute mountain of presents they’ve got for the boys. I’m sure my in-laws have at least something for them too. They’re not going to be destitute this Christmas, that’s for certain. xD But as a parent, there’s just something about being able to get your kid something from yourself, too.
Your love for them will long outlast the presents. Time spent together doing something fun, funny, creative, game playing, ball chasing will stay with them.
When I was growing up, we each got one present for Christmas, along with fruit and nuts in a stocking, sometimes with a new hairbrush or deck of playing cards. I treasured those presents and still remember them 50 years later. They’ll remember the special things that you sacrificed to give them!
Dear Treeclimber,
Been there! When our kids were little, we couldn’t afford to buy Christmas (or birthday) gifts for them. Our families always sent us enough gifts that they never knew how poor we were financially, but we were rich with the love and support of our whole family, even though they were 1500+ miles away from the nearest.
You have your priorities right. It isn’t the loot they get, but the love they have around them. Take care and have a wonderful Christmas. Your post brought back fond memories of our early struggles in the wilds of Alaska, living off the land and overcoming together as a family. Thank you.
Menagerie,
The LOVE in your heart poured up over the top, spilling out to bless the beginning of our day!
Thank You Little Connor. I want to be as excited as you are, for the things that I love.
Sending much love.
Merry Christmas, Menagerie. What a beautiful way to begin my day. I lost my father on Christmas Eve three years ago, and to be reminded of childlike wonder is awesome. Thank God for Connor and his brilliance. Cheers, y’all!
Autistic people have a special connection with Gd the rest of us don’t share. You should take everything they say seriously and always search for special messages imbedded within.
Lovely, just lovely, Menagerie! He’s a sweet little boy.
The miracle of life, the uniqueness of each child and their importance in our lives amazes me. We are very blessed!
Excellent Christmas Story. Thank you.
Great story. Thanks for sharing.
I have a godson with Downs Syndrome and autism. They’re special people. God bless and have a Merry Christmas.
I do.
Our seven year old grandson is autistic.
We live in a place where there are lots of trains and he loves to hear them.
So I made a “steampunk” style n-scale train layout with familiar landmarks and such. It took a few years, and I planned to be finished when he would be old enough. COVID changed all that.
Who knew this mess would go this far?
He is still too you to be unsupervised, but he has big brothers and sister to help.
At least I got it done.
Dearest Menagerie,
I remember praying for your grandson and am so thankful he is doing well! Praise God from Whom all blessings flow without a doubt!
Two years ago I made a bunch of stuff to be in a Christmas craft show with a friend. The thing I made tons of were decorative pumpkins — including white winter Christmas pumpkins. I would love to send one (or all I have left!) to you for Connor. . .it would be my pleasure to do so. Just contact me through my email address and let me know an address to mail a pumpkin to! Would be my great joy to do that for him and you.
Please pass on my thanks to Conner for sharing this most beautiful Christmas pumpkin. Sharing this story could not have had better timing for me and it seems by the previous comments, others as well. Also it is wonderful to know that school has been positive for Conner.
God bless you Menagerie, your entire family and all the fabulous behind the screen people that maintain this awesome treehouse. Merry Christmas!
Thank you for sharing this story with us. I’m very glad that Conner’s disability is improving so much.
This is the first I have heard about Connor. Every soul has a purpose and God has placed Connor in your care to help fulfill his.
My special gift was my dog Iggy. I was pet sitting him 5 years ago when his owners returned and said they didn’t have time for him anymore. Their kids were getting more involved in school activities and the dog lover that I am, I took him in. I knew he was a special soul from the get go. We quickly bonded and he never left my side. In May my 87 year old Dad died and I was diagnosed with stage 4 peritoneal cancer only a few weeks later. My prognosis was hopeful but I needed 18 rounds of chemo. The first several weeks were very difficult. I could barely eat or get out of bed. Iggy slept by my side the entire time, only getting up for meals and bathroom breaks. After I had gotten through the worst of it, Iggy became ill and I had to let him go. He was my little angel.
Merry Christmas to Connor and your whole family! My favorite part of Halloween is pumpkins, so now I can look forward to them at Christmas too!
Thank you for sharing this beautiful family. That is one fabulous pumpkin you put together! Conner is precious and for sure blessed to have you in his life. Have a joyous Christmas!
Absolutely heartfelt and wonderful!
Conner will continue to be in our prayers,
Very familiar with autism! (close family and friends)
Greatly appreciate you sharing Conner with us and his love of pumpkins!
Merry Christmas to you and your family and big HUGS to amazing Conner,
Beautiful heartwarming story!
x
Your post Menagerie made me pull out the ingredients and start baking.
Soon my 3 year old grandson wanted in and the my other children started to hang around talking and watching him.Music soon played and okay the lights and candles went on and it’s been an unexpectedly pleasant Christmas afternoon.
Instead of dreading the darkness that is coming, we shared a moment of peaceful simple holiday fun.
All because of a post put out at the Tree house.
Thank you.
Conner’s story has blessed me today. His amazing love for life has been an inspiration. Merry Christmas, Conner. Merry Christmas to everyone.
I have always told my wife that all children are special needs. Merry Christmas from our family to yours, and especially from our special son Luke (monster jam focused) to Connor.
Merry Christmas to Conner and his entire family. God Bless you!
My grandson is at the higher end of the autism scale. Of course when he was four, we already figured that out. How a four year old can take six different puzzles, mix all the pieces together, and just by looking at each piece knowing how to separate them correctly… I looked at my wife at the time and said how is that even possible?
He’s now living in California with his mother. Our first Christmas apart in eight years. I miss him so much. Dammit! Now my allergies are in full attack mode.
Beautiful.
I am convinced God often uses us, and most often when we are unaware. I hope you don’t mind that I share a true Christmas miracle here… “Saving Shirley” Christmas is a hard time to create tv news content so I went with the easy road and produced a segment on senior shut-ins, basically guilting people into looking out for one in their own neighborhood. I hated doing those stories because they are so depressing. So a social worker directed me to a dilapidated shack, in San Bernardino, CA where Shirley, nearly blind and both legs amputated, due to diabetes, hailed me from her bed, in her living room, with the most sincere and heartfelt “Merry Christmas!” that I had ever heard. Blew my mind. Shirley was dirt poor and COMPLETELY alone… she had lost contact with her children some 20 years previously, and spent everyday alone and bedridden. Only a social worker, every two weeks, for human contact. So we did the segment. I left and pretty much forgot about her. About two weeks later, I got a postcard from a viewer, in Paducah, KY. This woman claimed to be Shirley’s long lost daughter who had recovered from drug addiction and had gone onto have a beautiful family. She had been desperately searching for Shirley for years. Unfortunately, it was impossible for them to reunite due to the cost of transporting Shirley. So we let our viewers know and raised enough money to fly Shirley, on a private plane, staffed by medical personnel, to her daughter. Again, I completely forgot about her. About five years later I received another postcard. Shirley had just died… however, instead of living alone, in a shack, those years were filled with her children and grandchildren. I give credit to God for this miracle. I was simply a tool. But it was a profound and tear-jerking thing to read about how beautiful those final years were. Still gets me. And you know what? It wasn’t just Shirley who was saved. Merry Christmas! Thank you for allowing me to share this story.
That IS a beautiful Christmas miracle — Connor and now Shirley… Tissues please!
God Bless You and Conner. I was a SpEd teacher for 8 yrs. I had an autistic 7th grader in my class (and on my caseload). I had zero experience and zero training on how to deal with autism. I ended up learning more from that young man and his family than anything. They ended up moving across town and enrolled him in a very small specialized school. After I left teaching, I got an email from his parents inviting me to his graduation. I watched him graduate and felt so proud to have been a small part of his journey. A true highlight from that part of my life.
Love, love, love.
My 15 year old son has autism…God Bless You and Yours!-!!
God love and keep you & your family forever.