Christmas

on christmas my family and i all used to gather around the fireplace the night before christmas day, we would talk about santas arrival and what we were all hoping to get. we would make cookies and get a glass of milk and set them out for santa as a family, and in the night while we were all asleep, the magic of christmas would start to flow over all of us. although as a determined kid for my age, i would try so hard to keep my increasingly heavy eyelids from closing and wisking away my chance of seeing that beloved red-clad man carrying all the toys and goodies to the tree.
in the morning, all of the kids in my family would have to sit atop the stairs around the corner from the christmas tree untill our parents were dressed and ready to go. That moment is what i cherish the most about christmas, that magical feeling of pure excitement and the knowing that all you wished for was just beyond that corner, you'd imagine what lay there under the tree. but in the daze of my imagination id miss my parents giving the go-ahead and be left in the dust behind my brother and sister. id bolt down and walk slowly around the corner and then smile and laugh-this is the moment, this is the feeling, this is what my christmas was really about.