One day, she went to a concert, came back and said, \"I wish I could play a drum\". According to Mary Ellen\'s daughter, Ruth Nieboer, she kept talking about that drum all that afternoon. So Ruth decided to buy it for her mother as a Christmas present.

She gave her mother the snare drum, a pair of sticks, a wheeled-suitcase to carry it, a book of music and a lesson.

At 5 foot nothing and barely 100 pounds, Mary Ellen was not much bigger than her giant drum. But she found it a treasure and picked up the skills fast. Mary Ellen Handwork, now 81, says:

\"I just love it. When have you ever heard of giving a 79-year-old woman a snare drum for Christmas?\"

In facts, she loved the snare drum so much that she decided to buy a pair of bongo drums.

And every Christmas since receiving \"the best Christmas present ever,\" Mary Ellen Handwork has performed The Little Drummer Boy with a visiting choir at the Sanctuary at St. Paul\'s in her hometown South Bend.