I remember the year that Santa left snow tracks in the living room or the question which kept lingering in this very intelligent little blonde's mind: how does Santa go down the chimney without a chimney. My mama reassured us that it was magic and you just have to believe.
When I was very little (and as pictured right here), Grandma would buy each of us a new Christmas nightgown to go home in. We were usually very sleepy little ones by the time we were carried to warm, waiting vehicles by our daddy's and tucked into bed only to say "but mommy, I want to see Santa...is he here yet?".
Each year Santa leaves a ridiculous trail of crumbs and always spills his milk.....and each year my sisters and I stand around the note that Santa leaves us to chuckle at how messy he is.
To my mother: thank you for instilling the magic of Christmas in our home each and every year. You have taught us to just believe and with that what it really means to make the "Nice List". It is not the receiving that we have turned out to love after all these years but it is the giving. It is the begging to let us let you open the gifts we so carefully wrapped. It is the sitting around a dinner table, saying a blessing and laughing during an amazing meal. It is the "mama where is MY STOCKING" and you laughing to say that my sisters must have hid it last year. It is the spending an entire day decorating your house with Christmas Cheer....only to watch it transform into something right out of my favorite fairy tale. It is the calling all our our Aunties and Uncles on Christmas Eve to say "Merry Christmas and we love you so much" and how excited we get to finish eating so we can give our presents. It is the bowing of our heads to give thanks to the Lord and all that we have been blessed with. It is the way we open at least one of our presents in order and then just laugh at you when you tell us "wait GIRLS....ONE AT A TIME". It is the watching wrapping paper pile up on the living room floor and the tears which fall when we talk about how much we miss Grandpa or how badly we wish that everyone had somewhere to call home on Christmas Eve. It is your three daughters asking you if everyone has a mama who loves them just as much as you love us. It is the unimaginable amount of love for others that each of us has within us that you instilled. I love you for so much but Christmas is the cherry which tops the cake I call life. I can only hope that someday I will be as wonderful of a mother as you are to children as wonderful as you have raised us to be.
Here is to the joy of Christmas and hoping that all each of you has a wonderful family to make memories with. And if not, you are always welcome to join mine :)
All my love (from a very cold Minnesota),
Danika
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