Four Days Till Christmas

Amanda is sleeping on the couch, curled up in a green blanket while I sip on some Yogi Fasting Tea.  The Christmas tree is close enough that I can reach out and touch its soft green needles and warm, pretty white lights.  Life is good. Despite the usual ups and downs of emotions and life, I know that life is good.

In five days my sister Emily along with her husband will be down here visiting, and we will be opening up whatever presents appear under the tree.

It will be a scarce year, and that's okay. I've already got my Christmas and birthday gift a few months ago.  My parents provided me with some extra money while I was in Ecuador so I could have some adventures, calling the money my gifts.  I find presents nice and pretty, but they mean so much more to me when I only get one super special one.  Nothing about being given oodles of presents speaks for the Christmas spirit, but everything about giving one special gift speaks bundles.  But I do love seeing the tree the morning of Christmas, early in the morning while it is still dark out, with beautifully wrapped presents piled around the tree.  It is gorgeous. But my favorite part of Christmas are the stockings.

When I was a child I would wake up early every Christmas morning, grab my fuzzy stocking, scoot back to bed and begin unpacking its treasures.  It's astounding to me, even now as an adult, how much a stocking can hold.  My hand would dive into the stocking time and time again, fingers feeling for the next delight to grab and pull out with joy.  There is always an abundance of chocolate, or other delicious treats, which I eat right then, while others I put away to snack on during the day or following weeks.  The most delightful of finds are the presents within.  Usually I will find some little trinket that is wrapped.  I see these trinkets as doubly wrapped presents.  Not only was it wrapped up and hidden in the stocking, but it is so great and mysterious that it had to be wrapped again!  After all is said and done I sit happily on my bed, playing with my new toy, reading my new book, eating some chocolate or trying to figure out what something does.  It's my own private Christmas that takes place on my bed.

And now as an adult I also stuff the stockings.  Now, when my parents open up their stockings they find things in there that they didn't already know about.  I enjoy trying to find stocking sized gifts that are personal and could be useful to whoever I am shopping for.  Christmas time, for all of its stresses and annoyingly cheerful songs, can be delightful.