Lights

My parents always decorated our house for Christmas. My mother filled the house with beautiful candles nestled in fragrant pine boughs. She wrapped the banisters with garland and placed poinsettias strategically around the rooms for splashes of color. The woman sure knew how to create holiday ambience. While the inside of our house was tasteful, the outside was, well, bright. My father liked lights...lots of lights. He covered the exterior with hundreds of multicolored lights and, on the roof, he placed the centerpiece of his creation - a waving Santa in his sleigh and all eight reindeer prancing. I remember gazing up at that glowing Santa and reindeer and thinking that they might truly take flight at any moment. Those memories are some of the best of my childhood. After my parents divorced, neither of them ever did Christmas in quite the same way.

I want to create holiday memories for my children. I want them to be able to look back and remember decorating the tree, putting up lights and making Christmas cookies. I want them to remember all the times we stood out in the cold to watch the Holidazzle Parade and the times we went to see the holiday display on the eighth floor of Macy's. I want them to remember sitting around the tree singing Christmas carols. Miguel is old enought to remember the rituals from year to year and will remind us of certain things that we always do and must not forget. In those moments, I know that we are creating those times that will become his childhood memories.

Tonight, I am missing Santa and his sleigh on the rooftop but a trip to the Holidazzle and putting up lights of our own helps...