Christmas is near

For me the holidays are magic.  Every year around the holidays I find myself thinking back to different memories over the years and enjoying the ones that I am making in the present.  There have been both snow and sunny days of unseasonable warmth in my years.  I blame my love for coffee on the Folger's commercial "Peter Comes Home For Christmas."  I can say without shame that I love the Hallmark Christmas movies.  They are super cheesey and awesome!  To me there is nothing than the warmth of staying in and curling up on the couch with a blanket, bowl of popcorn, and a movie going.  Christmas is not complete until I have watched A Christmas Story, Christmas Vacation, Elf, Home Alone 1 & 2, and White Christmas.  I remember as a child me and my sister begging for colored lights because our mother always wanted white lights.  Every Christmas Eve we would go out and drive around to look at the lights then once home rush off to bed excited for the next day.  As my sister and I got older and she started driving we would go out and drive around looking at the lights on houses and rating them on a scale of one to ten.  It still sparks a sense of childlike joy and wonder when I am driving home at night and see houses that have lights.  I love the way the the early darkness of late fall makes the lights glow brighter.  I get happy when I smell wood burning stoves on the crisp air.  My favorite Christmas tune is Run Run Rudolph as sung by Chuck Berry.  Everything about this time of year is special to me.