So Christmas, to me, is a very strange thing. In past years, the excitement has dimmed, the spirit-- though still present-- has become repetitive, and the gifts-- both giving and receiving-- receive mais and mais disappointed reactions. Basically, it has been slowly, but steadily losing its flavor. And while, a few years ago, I watched Taylor Momsen sing away in the new Grinch movie and wondered the same thing she did, my ending wasn't as cathartic as hers.
Eventually, though, I came to accept that natal just wasn't like it was for me ten years ago. When my brother would sneak into my room and wake me up at 3AM on natal Eve so we could go on a covert mission to spy on the presents Santa left us under the tree. When I pretended to still believe in Santa when I found out he wasn't real at eight-years-old, because I thought my thirteen-year-old big brother would be disappointed if I didn't. When my dad forced me to set my alarm clock for a reasonable hour-- seven, or eight o'clock instead of three or six. How I always reset it after he said good night, and how he always came back in when I was asleep again to set it back.
But today, I came to a different conclusion.
Now, this isn't an artigo about how I found "the true meaning of Christmas." But it is an artigo about growing up a little.
I amor Christmas-- even though the excitement has dimmed, and I always will. I amor the TV specials, and the radio stations playing carols 24/7, and the lights on the houses, and the cold weather. And today, my parents went to sleep and I waited around for a while. And then I decided to go get their meia stuffers and fill them.
Now, when I was eight-years-old and found out there was no Santa Claus, I also understood why my parents' stockings were always empty. So from that ano progressivo, para a frente I took it upon myself to fill those stockings. In the beginning, being a child, all I could do was put início made biscoitos, cookies and cards etc. in them. But as I grew older, they turned into really nifty gadgets and things.
Anyways, this ano I told them there wouldn't be a lot and they looked at me and said they didn't care. Every year, they tell me not to do it, or at least my dad does. My mother always thinks it's cute, even though I'm nineteen now and it's a sterling silver colar and pendant instead of a macaroni one. So anyways, I switch on my natal música and start humming as I put the things in their stockings. I realize I needed to write to, from and encontro, data on the gift I was putting in my Dad's stocking-- a "Remember When" booklet from 1948, the ano he was born. On the list of famous births, I put a Post-It that read my Dad's name, birth date, and occupation ("Awesome Dad") just like the others listed. I put it in the stocking. I poured in the Hershey's kisses I bought. I walked por the árvore and saw the doces canes hanging there, and put one in each stocking. OK, this is getting too specific. The point is, I thought I had been done, and realized there were so many little things I could do without going shopping.
Just as I finished all of this, smiling a little, looking at the presents, I sat down, about to turn of the música and the computer, when my phone goes off. It's not a text message or a caller, it's an alarm. 12:00-- "Christmas!" is what the screen reads. I set the alarm a ano ago, on December 26th.
I don't know why, but the alarm stirred something in me. It reminded me when I purposefully set it for twelve, because of all those years atrás when I would be asleep por now. And I realized, I had become my parents-- in the good way, not the bad way. I did their stockings every ano because regardless of if they needed me to or not, I liked feeling like there was something I could do to take care of them. I liked putting Post-It's inside booklets and stealing doces canes from the árvore for them. Hell, I even ate a cookie and a glass of milk.
It made me feel good.
And I don't know if it's because my brother is all alone in Hull, England this Christmas, or because I realized that today I really spent some quality time with my parents, or because I don't see my family as much anymore living all the way across the country from them, but... I actually felt like it was the best natal Eve in a long time.
And that's it. That's all I really wanted to share... Sorry to take up your time, but I warned you it was corny.
Eventually, though, I came to accept that natal just wasn't like it was for me ten years ago. When my brother would sneak into my room and wake me up at 3AM on natal Eve so we could go on a covert mission to spy on the presents Santa left us under the tree. When I pretended to still believe in Santa when I found out he wasn't real at eight-years-old, because I thought my thirteen-year-old big brother would be disappointed if I didn't. When my dad forced me to set my alarm clock for a reasonable hour-- seven, or eight o'clock instead of three or six. How I always reset it after he said good night, and how he always came back in when I was asleep again to set it back.
But today, I came to a different conclusion.
Now, this isn't an artigo about how I found "the true meaning of Christmas." But it is an artigo about growing up a little.
I amor Christmas-- even though the excitement has dimmed, and I always will. I amor the TV specials, and the radio stations playing carols 24/7, and the lights on the houses, and the cold weather. And today, my parents went to sleep and I waited around for a while. And then I decided to go get their meia stuffers and fill them.
Now, when I was eight-years-old and found out there was no Santa Claus, I also understood why my parents' stockings were always empty. So from that ano progressivo, para a frente I took it upon myself to fill those stockings. In the beginning, being a child, all I could do was put início made biscoitos, cookies and cards etc. in them. But as I grew older, they turned into really nifty gadgets and things.
Anyways, this ano I told them there wouldn't be a lot and they looked at me and said they didn't care. Every year, they tell me not to do it, or at least my dad does. My mother always thinks it's cute, even though I'm nineteen now and it's a sterling silver colar and pendant instead of a macaroni one. So anyways, I switch on my natal música and start humming as I put the things in their stockings. I realize I needed to write to, from and encontro, data on the gift I was putting in my Dad's stocking-- a "Remember When" booklet from 1948, the ano he was born. On the list of famous births, I put a Post-It that read my Dad's name, birth date, and occupation ("Awesome Dad") just like the others listed. I put it in the stocking. I poured in the Hershey's kisses I bought. I walked por the árvore and saw the doces canes hanging there, and put one in each stocking. OK, this is getting too specific. The point is, I thought I had been done, and realized there were so many little things I could do without going shopping.
Just as I finished all of this, smiling a little, looking at the presents, I sat down, about to turn of the música and the computer, when my phone goes off. It's not a text message or a caller, it's an alarm. 12:00-- "Christmas!" is what the screen reads. I set the alarm a ano ago, on December 26th.
I don't know why, but the alarm stirred something in me. It reminded me when I purposefully set it for twelve, because of all those years atrás when I would be asleep por now. And I realized, I had become my parents-- in the good way, not the bad way. I did their stockings every ano because regardless of if they needed me to or not, I liked feeling like there was something I could do to take care of them. I liked putting Post-It's inside booklets and stealing doces canes from the árvore for them. Hell, I even ate a cookie and a glass of milk.
It made me feel good.
And I don't know if it's because my brother is all alone in Hull, England this Christmas, or because I realized that today I really spent some quality time with my parents, or because I don't see my family as much anymore living all the way across the country from them, but... I actually felt like it was the best natal Eve in a long time.
And that's it. That's all I really wanted to share... Sorry to take up your time, but I warned you it was corny.
