The "true" meaning of Christmas

Christmas has this enormous feeling attached to it for me, and I work hard to keep that feeling going. While I immensely enjoy the religious aspect of the holiday, the whole season is fun for me. For starters, Christmas music is among my favorite, and ever since moving out of the house I've started listening around Halloween (after Thanksgiving was the rule in my house). I always hang a ton of Christmas lights around the apartment, try to get spice- or pine-scented stuff around the house, bake cookies just about every week, buy a lot of Christmas candy, and generally get excited about getting presents for people. There's something very fulfilling about getting just the right gift for someone you care about. Getting gifts is fun, I won't lie, but the joy of receiving is much more transitory for me. There's the initial hit of "Oh cool, something for me!" and the mass "Wow, I have a bunch of new stuff" that lasts for little while longer, but I get to be excited about the presents I give far before the holiday itself hits, and then if it was really good they'll remember later on, too.

The family aspect is awesome. I think I get to spend the most time with my family over Christmas, since summers are spent apart now. It's nice to be able to play around with my little brothers, help/watch them build stuff out of Legos or Knex or whatever they got, go play in the snow with them, etc. Staying up late talking to the 'rents and drinking hot cocoa is fun, too. It's all around a fantastic feel-good time for me. I am always looking forward to it, and I start early and end late to make it last as long as possible.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

The only time I'm ever rude to someone who's serving me in some way is if I feel like they've consciously slighted me, or if they're seriously in the wrong. Like the pizza I ordered taking over an hour and a half when they said it would be 30-45 minutes, and everything was on campus. Even then I'm only boldly questioning, not in-your-face irate. I find that a kind smile and a word of sincere thanks, if nothing else, makes me feel like I've accomplished something for someone. I suppose that's a piece of what Christmas is about.

There's nowhere I can't reach.