Best part of Christmas

Christmas Eve candlelight service.  I can't imagine Christmas without it.  Also, I love pulling the ornaments out of the box as we decorate the tree each year and reminiscing about each one.  Where we got it.  Which child made it at school?  Or at Sunday school and at what age?  Also looking at all the photo ornaments of the kids through the years.  Memories of years past.  Love it.

I love that for a few weeks a year...despite the cries of "crass commercialism"...that most folks are kinder, more generous and in a better mood. I love less is more and I love more is more, children's faces when they see the cookie platters, cocoa with whipped cream, pines covered in snow with lights flickering beneath it, wrapping paper and cards and photo cards and newsy snail mail letters in the days of FB and e-mail...anonymous giving and toys for tots, Santa and rooms full of decorations and people and food and laughter and Christmas songs...midnight mass, children singing anywhere, school, church, the mall....baking cookies, nativity scenes, full stockings and surprised smiles on teen age faces Christmas morning...Classic Christmas cartoons and  "It's a Wonderful Life!!!"