DeCamillo 1 Anne Decamillo Mr Neuburger Eng.

130 23 February 2012 Descriptive Essay Christmas Morning I woke up to little whispers and pitter pattering feet across the dark wood floors; the sun wasnt up yet, although, the moonlight shinning on the snow was almost as bright as day. It had been only four hours ago that I crawled into bed after wrapping all of Santas presents. The blankets where as warm and soft as if they had just come out of the dryer, However, I knew once the children made it to the living room to see what was under the tree I wouldnt be in bed much longer. Although I thought of myself as smart, because the night before and prepared the coffee to start two hours early and knew it would be starting any minute now. I slowly shifted to my husband and said, Merry Christmas, the children are up. As he said to me The sun isnt. I laughed and smacked him on the butt and said get up By this time, there was at least one cup of coffee ready. I stumbled to the kitchen following the strong sweet smell of fresh coffee and poured myself a cup. I was ready for this wonderful occasion and had picked out some special vanilla caramel creamer; which I usually dont waste the money buying because I do enjoy my coffee black most of the time. However it was Christmas morning so I treated myself to something delectably delicious. As I got settled with my cup of coffee on the cream colored couch, the children were poking and peeking at all

DeCamillo 2 the gifts under the brightly lit Christmas tree. Saying This one is mine, That one is yours, Oh! Look there! Whose is that? The smile on my face stretched from ear to ear as I watched my children sort the presents into piles of their own. The stockings were already down on the floor next to the presents that were piled high towering over them like a tall downtown building. As they sat on the floor staring at me waiting for approval to start unwrapping, I was enjoy their anticipation and thought to myself I must try to drag this out as long as possible. I chuckle inside and exclaimed Go for it. The chaos begins and red and green Santa reindeer paper is flying everywhere, and to think it took me more then four hours to wrap all these presents last night and they will have them ripped open in no time, as I think to myself the wonderful joy of celebrating Christmas with three young children, and after about fifteen min or so all the presents were open and now the real fun begins, what do we play with first? Opening Barbie dolls and baby dolls are parents favorite thing to do with all the little plastic bands tied around the head, neck, stomach and pretty much any intersection of the dolls body. We get to work on opening all the gifts and the excitement in the children is just growing like a wild fire they can not keep their mind focused on one toy, they want them all open. And to think this is all before six in the morning. Thank God for coffee I think to myself. Pictures are snapping bolts of flash across the room as the kids model their new toys for the camera. After all the excitement and the kids are content, I make my way into the kitchen to start the traditional Christmas breakfast before church. I pull out some left over steak from our Christmas Eve dinner to make steak and egg omelets with hash browns, bacon and French toast.

DeCamillo 3 The sizzling of bacon and steak bring the family into the kitchen to observe. Oh mom, that looks good my little girls say to me, and as I soak up this moment of life, I remember growing up and my mother doing the same thing: decorating the house, waking up before the sun, cooking breakfast Christmas morning before church. The wonderfully fond memories of Christmas morning as a child nearly brings tears to my eyes as I thank my creator for the wonderful blessing of family memories and the opportunity to make new ones with my own children. By the time we eat it is only about seven in the morning and I am glad because after all of that food I definitely needed a quick rest. We still had a long day ahead of us, which consisted of church, Lunch, then over to Grandmas for a nice traditional dinner with the rest of the family. The roads were slick as butter that day because it had iced over night. We needed to be sure to allow enough traveling time. With that in mind I decided we better start getting ready to go. An hour later we were all ready to start the rest of our day. Church was the next stop, however, before we could make it to church our wonderful Christmas day started to turn off course. As we drove down the highway a loud POP filled our ears as it drug the car across the lane into the median. It all happened so fast there was no time to think! Thank goodness we were in the left passing lane and the median was grass, safe in the median we had another issue on our hands. We had a pretty violent blow out and on my little Honda accord station wagon it ripped the electrical wires right out of the head light on the driver side where the tire had blew, it Also ripped the interior covering inside the wheel well. Shaken frightened and frustrated as we worked

DeCamillo 4 with a small worthless jack on the icy ground next to a four lane highway with cars flying by so fast you would think they were Nascar drivers we managed to change the tire and be on our way. The sun was up and shinning more brightly melting majority of the ice. So I was comfortable making our way to moms after church. After lunch the roads were barely wet and the family and I made our way to moms. There we would meet up with great grandparents, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles cousins, nieces, and nephews. We would all exchange gifts, and then sit by the crackling fire to enjoy its heat as we mingle with relatives we may have not seen since last year. Through the air is the smell of moms spiral ham; all around there are pies and cookies and appetizers to munch on, you can hear the clicking of cameras and stories from the past, you hear the kids playing and running around dodging the adults. You can hear the oohs, and ahhs, from the elders admiring the new additions. This is what life was meant for, these are the memories that last and how tradition gets started. I try to live in that moment and decide to make a toast. I tap my glass and the noise all around became a quiet hush. I say everyone put your drinks up, its a celebration every time we link up I wish we could share this moment for life. Merry Christmas!