Mrs. Claus

  I was raised by the most optimistic, selfless, joyful, kindest Mom in the world.  As a child, her joy absolutely oozed from every pore in her body during the Christmas season.  All of the holiday traditions seemed magical to me when Mom was around.

And she is no different today.  I called Mom early this year on the day after Thanksgiving.  She answered the phone with a gleeful "Merry Christmas!" instead of the typical "Hello?"  My Mom is the epitomy of Christmas spirit.  Her face lights up when a Christmas carol comes on the radio.  She does silly dances.  She likes to shake her gifts and guess what might be inside.  She does holiday baking.  Her house is decorated beautifully.  She is a very grateful recipient of gifts, yet she delights most in the giving of them.

  Her Christmas spirit is definitely contagious.  As I type this, the boys are getting dressed and ready to go to my Mom's house for our Christmas.  We are all so excited.  The kitchen table will be adorned with some sort of "theme".  The Christmas dishes will be set out.  There will be a display of some kind in the middle and we will each have an ornament at our seat that accompanies the "theme" for the year. 

We will have a spread of food that is making my mouth water just thinking about it.  Pancakes, bacon, sweet rolls, ham, sausage, gravy, biscuits, grits, eggs, jellies, and a variety of syrups.  We will each have our favorite soda waiting for us to drink and there will be all sorts of desserts.  We will walk away from the table stuffed to the max. 

  We will sing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus and the little kids will even blow out the candles on His birthday cake that she makes every single year. 

Gifts will be overflowing from under her tree.  Everyone will have several gifts to open that will be just the right thing.  Mom will sit back and watch and savor every single second of it before she opens her own gifts.  She will smile and giggle and even clap her hands.  She lives for this moment with her family.

My Mom has more Christmas spirit than Mrs. Claus herself.