Memories Are Made With the Magic of Christmas

One of the monikers I have collected since I have become a mom is Santa Claus, or should I say Mommy Claus? It's now my duty to fill my daughter's head with dancing sugarplums, to deck the halls and to make sure the bottom of the Christmas tree is packed with presents. Most importantly, I must try to make this stressful and busy time of year merry and magical for her.

On Christmas Eve I'll be quietly wrapping the Easy-Bake Oven, stuffing the stockings and nibbling on the cookies left for Santa while she's asleep upstairs. Maybe I'll leave a few crumbs on top of the presents because Santa really loves his cookies, after all!

For my daughter, Kaila, the wonderment of Christmas is fresh and sincere. At this age children naturally believe in the myth of Santa Claus. I'd like to keep this holiday magic going for as long as I can.

We dragged out the Christmas decoration box from the back of the closet once we had brought home our chosen tree. I just can't go the artificial tree route. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the green sentiment of choosing not to cut down a tree; yet, the fresh pine smell of a real honest-to-goodness conifer can't be replicated. The fragrant needles remind me of my time in South Lake Tahoe. Christmas time rekindles my memories of living within the snow-covered forest.

There's no snow here in Moorpark, although there has been plenty of wet weather of late. The recent deluge creates a perfect cozy ambience to this holiday season.  Instead of dealing with the maddening traffic, we have stayed indoors and decorated our tree with our eclectic array of ornaments while we sip on eggnog.

Every year we buy a couple of new additions to our ornament collection. This year while grocery shopping, Kaila yelled out, "stingray!" in Whole Foods. I whipped my neck around to discover a wonderful little hand carved wooden stingray ornament. We had to take him home since Kaila loves stingrays. The first ornaments we purchased for our family collection are the ones my husband bought when we had a small tree in our apartment together before Kaila was born. He bought red and gold ornaments because they were USC colors.

Now that the stockings are hung and our house is decorated with blinking lights, we can enjoy this time together. I like to bake cookies for family and friends as an inexpensive but meaningful gift. This year we are making chocolate-covered pretzels, raspberry thumbprints, peanut butter cookies and, of course, the traditional gingerbread men. Kaila loves to help out and she reminds me to make sure we have leftovers for both her and Santa.

No matter what we receive as gifts this holiday season, I think the most important thing to be thankful for is our health and each other. In years to come we may not remember the toy or the gizmo we received, but we sure will remember the time we shared together and the holiday traditions we created.