The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

To me, Christmas means picking out a real tree at the Christmas tree farm and bringing it home to smell for a month.  It means that one blanket we have with the snowmen and the candy canes, the cute wooden Santa that sits on the piano, the Christmas dishes, and the wooden nativity where Christ fits perfectly in the manger.  It means reading the familiar story whose words have more meaning with each passing year.  It means carols- sung at church, in the living room, or on the neighbors' doorstep.  It means lights on houses and the magical way the tree looks lit up at night when the house is dark and still.  It means the indescribable joy of a 2 hour delay, or better yet- a snow day.  It means Ella Fitzgerald's Christmas album and the only time of the year I listen to the radio.  It means the physical anxiety lying in bed on Christmas Eve.  It means that feeling in the air when it seems the world is a little brighter and the human race a little happier.  It means being with friends, but more than anything, with my family, together.  To me, Christmas is love.