Sunday, December 6, 2009

Christmasy Time of Year

I'm supposed to be writing my final set of lesson plans as a student teacher (!), but I thought I would blog instead. I'm sitting in our kitchen, which is my favorite place in our house, drinking a little egg nog and listening to White Christmas radio on Pandora. When it comes to Christmas, I am the biggest, cheesiest Christmas person you will ever know. Our apartment is decorated to the hilt, with lights and funny snowmen and candy canes.
Christmas brings back so many memories. As I get older, I realize this. Like tonight, when I was sipping my egg nog, the smell of it brought my fifth grade Christmas in Virginia to my mind. We lived in a big green house in the woods, and there was a terrible ice storm. I say terrible because our power was out, but it was really beautiful because all the towering trees around our house looked icy and snowy. We moved everything from our fridge onto a table on our screened-in porch, and I remember the egg nog and my dad pouring me a glass and my family drinking it by the fire.
Sometimes, I really, really want to be a kid at Christmas again. All I worried about was what I was going to get-an American girl doll or a Barbie convertible? Now, Christmas is still wonderful, but I keep thinking about graduating and finding a job and money, and the magic vanishes a little bit. I just can't believe how fast time goes. I'm graduating in 13 days, and it's scary! Exciting, but scary. I'm just going to enjoy Christmas, but I can't help but wish I was back in my green house, drinking egg nog and cozying up to the fire.