Christmas Magic

Interrupting TED Tuesday for a fun Christmas link-up with Helene and Taylor to tell you why, at age 26, I'm still like a kid this time of year!

Every Christmas for me starts around mid-November around my birthday. It's like a magical 45 days of the year from the celebration of birth all the way until the ball drops at midnight to ring in the new year. From gifts and family time, rolling right into thanksgiving then the instant magic of the lights, candles, blankets and hot cocoa (spiked now that I'm over 21). 

The days leading up to Christmas were always so exciting growing up with my brother. Every year he was the ring-leader of a present hunt and I'd follow along right after him. Now that I'm older I realize that he just wanted an accomplice to bear part of the consequences, but I really don't blame him. Each and every year my parents got wiser and wiser, always hiding the gifts in sneakier crawl-spaces and often not even in the house. 

Brother being a ring-leader...unrelated to Christmas

I'm so thankful that we weren't subjected to the Elf on the Shelf nonsense that kids today have. There were only threats of lumps of coal in our stockings, even though we knew there would always be boxes of Red Hots, red licorice, a toothbrush, floss and some scratch-its no matter how naughty or nice we were.

Mom would always deck the halls with ribbons, wreaths and lights. There would be Christmas cheer everywhere you looked. We rarely had an actual live tree but still loved and cherished the ritual of decorating the tree with new ornaments, old ornaments, DIY ornaments from school and the ornaments we'd labeled as "Granny, Grandma and Grandpa".

Flash forward through baking and cookie decorating, we always got to open at least one present for my brother's half birthday on Christmas Eve. This gift was often a video game and I remember waking up way too early Christmas morning to play or watch my brother play (which I believe was to allow mom and dad to sleep in, right?)

Christmas morning the tree was always overflowing with presents (and still is to this day) with gifts perfectly wrapped and hand-made bows around them that we could shake and rattle till mom told us to cut it out.

We would go around in a circle, ordered youngest to oldest to start and then spreading out based on number of gifts. Now that my brother lives in Europe, we skype him in and watch his eyes get big for the games and prizes we've "fit and shipped" across the ocean and 9 hours into the future.

Can't wait for it all over again this year! 

Thanks for the fun link-up ladies!