The Night Before Christmas

I took Mary Kate and her friend Ally on a little outing the other night. Over dinner, the girls discussed the fact that now that they were getting older, they were finding it much harder to feel the same excitement about Christmas that they used to. I could completely relate to what they were saying. So much of the fun stuff about Christmas is really for young children. As you get older (and wiser, wink-wink), Christmas becomes something altogether different. Better…much more meaningful…but certainly different. Mary Kate and Ally are starting to feel that shift.

I made that shift years and years ago, but nevertheless, there really is something about Christmas that instantly transports you back to the memories of your childhood.

Instead of being read too, I’ve been reading Christmas books to my boys before bed. Some of these books take me back a few years. When I was young, “The Night Before Christmas” illustrated by Gyo Fujikawa was a particular favorite of mine. I mostly love the pictures. I spent many of my December hours carefully studying the illustrations in this book.

My favorite was always this one…

I don’t know why, but I could not tear my eyes away from this picture. (Maybe it’s because there is a set of twins boys right next to a red-headed girl, smack in the middle of that row of sleeping children. Maybe I was sensing my future somehow). I used to sit pondering and imagining how each sweet would taste if they were real. I remember wishing so badly that I could have a dream just like that…floating on a pink cloud with sweets bobbing and dangling around me.

(The closest I ever got to a similar dream was one I had years ago where I was seated at a huge banquet table that was laden with a delectable assortment of desserts and confections. What’s sad is that I woke myself up from this dream by literally sitting up in bed to take a huge bite of a ginormous, chocolate frosted, Texas doughnut that turned out to be merely a figment of my subconscious. I was sorely disappointed to find that I was only dreaming, and more than a little humiliated to be sitting upright in bed trying to bite the air between my imaginary doughnut, grasping fingers.)

Anyway…I also loved this illustration from the book…

I still want that cottage and everything in it…so sweet and charming.

Tonight is the night before Christmas. Mary Kate just informed me that she is headed over to the neighbors house to borrow a couple tablets of Melatonin to help her sleep tonight. Apparently she hasn’t quite lost all that childhood excitement just yet. Thank goodness!

Me, on the other hand…I will not be requiring a dose of Melatonin to assist me to sleep. I’m certain I will find my way to la-la land as soon as my head hits the pillow. (Christmas is a lot more work when you’re a grownup and I’m exhausted!) Gone also, are the days of longing for visions of sugar plums dancing in my head as I dream. In fact, after weeks of eating mostly sugary holiday treats, I’m really craving a nice bowl of bran flakes and a grapefruit to scrub out my system. I’m so looking forward to cleaning up my diet once the new year starts. (I would never dream of eating a Texas doughnut now!)

Grown ups are so boring!