December 26, 2002

christmas

In years past, Christmas began for me at any hour of the morning that I woke up: I have memories of 4am mornings, 5am mornings. I'd get up, run downstairs and check the tree (just to make sure...) and then would run back upstairs and wake my accomplice in crime, my sister. Together we'd wake the 'rents - a monumental task considering the early hour. In more recent years, my sister has had to wake me up on Christmas morning. She's two years my younger, and her birthday is also December 25th, so she still gets as wired as I remember myself being.

I've found that I can never sleep on Christmas Eve: the feeling of anticipation is just so strong that I wind up reading books that I've read before with the radio tuned into Christmas music until 4am. Same thing happened last night - reread some Robert Fulghum books ("All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarden", "Uh-Oh") some short stories, old Wired and 2600 magazines until I fell asleep.

My sister came in at 9am, the most awake I've ever seen her at that hour. I seem to remember the brightest smile that I've ever seen on her face peek over the covers as the protective cocoon I had built for myself over the course of the night was yanked away.

"Matt...get up!" she said, brightly and without any trace of sleep depravation. "Its my birthday!"

"MMmpggh..."I grumbled, and rolled over. She stood there poking me for another minute and went away.

I looked at my watch and got out of bed, realizing that, hey!, it really was Christmas morning, and made it downstairs at about 9:10. Normal progression of events followed, including the familiar sights - normally carpeted floors now covered in wrapping paper, ribbons, and bows, boxes piled in front of the tree in stacks three and four high, both parents with tired smiles on their faces betraying the planning that had gone into Christmas - and another, less familiar sight: snow! It snowed - and I mean, actually snowed! - big clumps of wet white snow, covering everything it fell upon. By the end of the day, we had a good 3-4 inches, and nothing had been plowed so it was all the more pristine.

I'll try not to dwell on the presents that I recieved: being with family was ten times the plastic, paper and other material objects piled beneath the tree. Big item this year was a Sony Playstation 2, and 3 games, the Lord of the Rings boxed book set, a leatherbound journal (think "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade"...the journal Dr. Jones, Senior had) DVDs, and the usual socks.

I love Christmas. I was finally able to get into the mood after reading to all of the Christmas carols in the morning...I was afraid that it wasn't going to happen this year. I was walking through the Towson mall when I realized that the only place that felt like "Christmas" was the mall that morning, and I was afraid...somehow, something changed, and home felt like it this morning, just being with the people that were around, while the snow fell onto the grass, trees, and everything else.

It was a very peaceful and serene Christmas.

"HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ALL, AND TO ALL A GOOD-NIGHT!"

Thursday plans: I have to work at five...and thats about it.

Posted by Matthew at December 26, 2002 01:02 AM
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