Debra LaValley's Blog

Happy Christmas Eve Everyone!

December has been a bit crazy this year – but all in all it will be a nice Christmas spent with family. We will miss those who are no longer with us – especially Nana this year. I usually would pick her up Christmas morning and take her to my folks’ house where we would have a nice breakfast cooked by my mother and open our stockings. Santa has always been nice to all of us.

My mother knitted all of our stockings for our first Christmas. All of ours look different. I like the big Santa on mine with the soft angora beard. I can’t believe my stocking has been filled by Santa for 52 years (it is hard enough to believe that I will be 53 on the 26th of December!). I have been pretty good this year – so I am sure that I will not be getting coal. As I sit here watching an All Creatures Great and Small Christmas Special – I think back on the many Christmas Eve’s when I was younger when I would lie awake – daring not to breathe – for fear that Santa would know I was awake and pass by the house. Some years, I would swear I heard sleighbells and noises on the roof. It was all very magical.

Tomorrow morning, I will wake up (my mother will barely sleep from excitement and want to be up and unwrapping at the crack of dawn – but she will wait) and head over to my parents’ house – carrying what Santa has left for them at my house … we will eat a delicious breakfast together …and then dig in to the presents. The rest of the family will arrive in the afternoon with their families and the small house will be brimming with laughter and love. It is all very magical – and it isn’t because of the gifts. It is because of the love.

I hope that you find yourself surrounded by Love on Christmas Day … and even if you cannot be with family and friends – remember the great gift of love given to all of us on that first Christmas.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a Good Night!