This is the time of year when people either start to enjoy or dread the holidays. My mom was very invested in making sure that our family had a picture-perfect christmas. I think she started out really enjoying it, and by the time I came along, as the fifth child, she was starting to weary of it a bit. All those boxes of trappings to pull out. She made it fun for me, and probably for her, too, when I was little, by involving me as her "helper". She made me a little felt badge that said "Mommy's little helper" and I wore it with pride.
She set up a gift-wrapping headquarters in her sewing room over the stairs. She wrapped all her gifts with whimsical decorations, and they always had hand-lettered gift tags. Every year, she embellished our stockings with a little icon of what we had accomplished or experienced during the past year. We always went to bed on christmas eve and ran downstairs in the morning to a completely transformed living room, full of gifts and sparkling somehow much more than it had the night before.
It was a magical time, and for those memories, I thank my mom.
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