What Christmas Means To Me

Christmas is near and dear to my heart, as it is to lots of people. Have you ever thought about why it's so important to you? Or thought about your most memorable Christmas?

Number one reason it's celebrated is because it's Jesus' birthday. Jesus is the reason for the season, as I say every year.

It's also about spending quality time with my family, friends, loved ones. It's about smiling from morning til night because we're alive, and we're here, and we are all full of joy and celebration. It's about celebrating love and health, and life. It's about giving the gift of joy. It's about giving. It's watching someone open a gift you spent hours making or shopping for, and seeing the joy across their face. It's about hope. Hope for another year of good health.

 (Pictures from 2010)

Every year as I begin preparing for another joyful Christmas, I reminisce of the past. I reminisce about the life size doll my grandmother gave me as a child and I miss her greatly but know that she is watching us from Heaven. I reminisce about my childhood and still remember the feeling of my heart fluttering as my brother, sister, and I lay in a giant bed and heard the bells of the reindeer and Santa on our rooftop. I reminisce about coming to the top of the stairs in our home to see the gifts that Santa ever so gracefully placed under the tree, in order for Jason, Josh, me, and sister (Josee). I reminisce.

I cry for kids in orphanages and for homeless people every year. Every year, I donate to Toys for Tots and most years I shop for a family for Christmas and I'm not announcing that to get praise, I'm announcing it because I truly want all the children in the world to feel that joy that I felt, every year, every 25th of December, every Christmas.