‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;
The children were nestled all snug in their beds;
It is now 10:33pm on Christmas Eve and as the poem states, not a creature is stirring, not even a mouse, except for me. As I’ve mentioned, with two children free time completely evaporates. I have been meaning to write a series of posts about the holidays but have only managed one since Halloween! And at the end of that post I promised one about the most magical Christmas of my life and wouldn’t you know it, here I am with only two and a half hours to go trying to hit the deadline with only a few hours to spare!
Looking at the NORAD Santa tracker I also still have time before Santa is to arrive. He is currently over Oklahoma so I figure I’ve got three hours at least which should be plenty of time for a post.
To be honest, I’ve had a hard time finding the magic of Christmas this year. It could be to work stress, or being very busy with the recent birth of another child, or that I’m just getting older. Or it could be that I’ve had a cold these past two weeks and just feel pretty blahhhh on the overall.
But being me, I cannot simply let Christmas pass without feeling the magic. I will make the magic come if it kills me.
And so, as I write this blog post, and the house is finally quiet, and I have a Budweiser, I can bring forth a flicker of that old childhood memory and joy. And it was a moment like this, alone at night, without the Budweiser of course that I felt the most magical moment of my life on Christmas.
I must have been about 7 or 8 years old. I lived in a town called Grandview, in Ohio which in the past decade or so has become quite trendy. Back then it was just another suburb but one with a strong sense of community. My room was comprised of the entire top floor since the second floor was only one room! Being extremely excited that Santa was paying a visit I awoke at 3:30 AM. Now, when a child awakes on Christmas morning at 3:30AM there is nothing that can be done to make them go back to sleep. There was nothing left for me to do but creep downstairs without waking the parents who surely would have told me to go back to bed. I crept down those stairs as quietly as a phantom opening my bedroom door carefully and should the highest octet of a creak should occur I would wait at least 5 minutes before opening some more. The door being sufficiently opened for my young frame to slip through, I glided into the dark living room.
As it was my own house I knew the placement of the furniture and could feel my way quickly through the room. I found the plug for the tree and put it into the outlet.
As the tree lit a thousand sparkles of the Christmas tree lights reflecting off of the presents filled my eyes. To my young mind there were hundreds of presents spilling over themselves across the room as though the Christmas tree has suddenly erupted in an avalanche of Christmas ecstasy.
When one witnesses something so awe inspiring, something so beautiful that it brings a tear to the eye, the only thing to be done is to sit and admire it.
So I sat down on the square grate where the hot air from our heater emanated from. The moment of pure Christmas ecstasy came when the heater clicked on and I could feel both the heat coming from below and the absolutely frigid temperatures outside while gazing upon the Christmas tree and presents which afforded an absolutely glorious array of colors, sparkles and decorated boxes.
There are moments in life which register so deeply on the soul that they shall never be forgotten. This was one of those moments. The intensity of this moment will transcend my life and its vibrations will be felt for eternity.
And so I sit, on this Christmas even trying to bring forth the magic. The type of magic I have just described is so far lost to me and only to be recovered in trying to recreate the magic for my children. My four year old is sound asleep but come tomorrow morning I hope to capture a flicker of the magic in his eyes as he sees the presents Santa has left, and make it my own.
Merry Christmas!
