It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

I have been dreaming about this day for so long.  Family surrounding the Christmas tree, adding tiny ornaments that remind of us memories, vacations, milestones, and love.  We christened our new house with its first Christmas tree while the little time-capsule part of my brain simultaneously gathered memories and stashed them away.

Now that we are a family of three, everything shifts.  We are in charge.  We hold the Holiday Torch--the powerful seed of tradition--in the palm of our hand. Everything our kids will remembers and cherish about these months stems from us. Wow. That's a lot of power.

I've thought about it a lot. I want my kids to know about new celebrations, but I also want to preserve the magic of everything our parents did for us this time of year. We did Christmas in the balls-to-the-walls kind of way. Not so much in presents and money, but in feeling. There was music and candles and lights, scents and sounds and talked-about hype. I'll never forget the excitement and comfort and hominess I felt through all their efforts...big shoes to fill.