Tis the Season

Don't you just love this time of year? I wonder what it is about this time of year that makes everything feel so special. To me it's so many things; the snow on the ground, smoke rising out of the chimney, and the remnants of burning leaves as you drive down country roads. The crisp winter air and the smell of apple cider on the stove. The seasonal drinks at Starbucks and my new favorite this year, caramel brulee latte! Mmmm! The snowmen built in the front yards all bundled up in scarves and a toboggan make me smile every time. The Christmas music on the radio and the common courtesy of others on the road, even just letting someone go in front of you in all the hustle and bustle of traffic in the shopping center. This year is an extra special year for me because it's our first Christmas as a family. I want to make it so special for Jackson. He won't remember it, but we will. And years from now we'll look back at home movies from his first Christmas and he'll laugh at how little he was. It's always made me feel lucky to have home movies from when I was younger so I can look back and see how I was as a child. Watching me play in the yard with my sister, or lay on the couch with my Dad, and even see my mom making faces at the camera. My oh my, how time changes things. In one of our Christmas movies from when I was three, my sister and I were talking about how we could swear "someone", maybe Santa, had come in and touched our nose in the middle of the night. Isn't that precious? My mom would always make us wait in the hallway in the morning so that my Dad could get set up in the den with the camcorder before we entered. We weren't allowed in the room until it was time. So we would sit in the hallway just giggling and then when she said it was time, we would run in and find our stockings, sit before them, and dig into our presents. All the presents were wonderful but the best times were just the time spent together. Usually my mom would make blueberry muffins, the best blueberry muffins by the way, and we would eat them and get ready to go to my grandmothers for lunch. Time's are certainly different now but the magic of Christmas is still the same. This year we'll be doing our Christmas at home, then going to my moms, then my in laws. I hope you all have a very merry Christmas!