Joy On Christmas Morning Part 1

Joy On Christmas Morning
Part 1

I'm amazed at my age that I still get as excited about Christmas as I do. I would think that after all these years, it would start to wane. Even though there isn't the celebration these days, because quite frankly it sometimes hurts too much, I still find myself getting just as excited as I once did when I was a child.

The joy on Christmas morning was something I waited all month for and even though our home life was in constant turmoil, this was the day of the year that offered an escape. It was the one day of the year that Santa would come and give us presents and life would be more peaceful for a few hours. Granted, I realize that we got very few things, but honestly I did not care if someone would have wrapped empty boxes and gave them to me. I just wanted to see wrapped presents under the tree. I was mesmerized by the pretty colorful wrapping paper, the shiny sparkling lights and ornaments on the tree.

The smells of cookies baking and candy being made by my mom, to the frosting of cookies, it was a special time of year in our house. I always enjoyed it when we would frost the Christmas cookies and surprise some lucky recipient. It warmed my heart with joy. My mom would go all out making peanut brittle, divinity, fudge, cookies of every kind, and especially the cutout cookies we would frost together.


Christmas stockings with our names on them always hung up on the wall. They had been designed for us by my mom I believe, when we were born and they stayed with us until we went to college. On Christmas morning, we would come down and see them stuffed with candy and little goodies of all kinds. It was as much fun to discover what was in the stockings as it was to open our presents.

Every year the church would put on a Christmas show of some sort with the children. A few times, my mom was the one in charge of bringing all the children together to recite the Christmas story with costumes and song. Since I played the piano, I often got that spot in the Christmas show and beamed with joy as a child who felt so special doing this with his mom. Sometimes I would sing and recite quoted lines, but most of the time, it was my job to play the music which I enjoyed more than I can describe.

Traveling to nursing homes, we would often go caroling. The joy of the residents could be seen on their faces. For most people in nursing homes, they are lonely and so anyone coming and performing for them was a treat they enjoyed. Again, I would get to play the piano and often I would just play while others mingled. The nursing home residents loved me as if I was their own and the hugs and love I received from them was worth more than gold.   

--  Continued tomorrow on Dec 23, 2011 (Part 2)


Related Blog Posts:
1)  Joy On Christmas Morning - Part 2 (Dec 23, 2011)
2)  Joy On Christmas Morning - Part 3 (Dec 24, 2011)

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