Christmas Past and Present
Thursday, December 16, 2010 at 4:00AM 
“Tell me about Christmas,” Nicky says to me with a twinkle in his eye. “Tell me your favorite thing when you were a little girl.” I tell him about how much I loved baking cookies with my brother to leave out for Santa on Christmas Eve and how we would fight to stay awake to hear the sound of reindeer hooves on the roof. It seems like yesterday, those sleepless Christmas Eves. My brother and I could hardly wait until sunrise.
After all these years, I now understand the work that went into making those Christmas mornings so magical. They’re as sleepless for the parents as they are for the kids. We work to assemble and arrange toys, wrap presents and set the table for breakfast. Round about midnight, I appreciate my parents’ efforts and now understand why Dad was so droopy eyed at dawn when we came rushing from our rooms.