Erin

Christmas morning. He is awake before the sun, anticipation coursing through his small body. ###

He's 12 and this will be the first Christmas he will spend as part of a divorced family. Fortunately his excitement is greater than his dread as he makes his way to the tree. Lights on, he scurries around the house waking up his mother and sister. ###

A new schedule has been created. Mom's house in the morning, with gifts and breakfast; Dad's in the afternoon. ###

After the divorce, Dad has been struggling. Life has found him unemployed, with little means for himself, let alone gifts for his children. Of course these are things that his son doesn't have the ability to understand and see. ###

Christmas at Dad's apartment. He slowly tears back the newspaper to reveal a thermos. He is thrilled. A thermos to keep his hot chocolate warm, to take his lunch to school. ###

Years later, when clearing out his room for his move to college, he finds the thermos. Only then does he recognize the logo: Marlboro. He thinks back to that Christmas and realizes that his gift that year, the Marlboro thermos, was purchased with Marlboro Miles, a reward program that allowed smokers to earn points that could then be redeemed for items. It was then, for the first time, that he was able to understand his father’s situation after the divorce, when he desperately wanted to provide a Christmas for his children and was only able to do so through his chain-smoking.