Ever since I was little I loved Christmas – the lights, the time spent together as a family, and making so many memories.

Looking back on my childhood there are so many treasured recollections.

Every year my cousins, brothers and I would go to my grandparents house for a sleepover, where we would decorate cookies, watch movies, and just play together.

My Nana would bake the cookies and we would get to decorate them with the frosting she made. There were many different shapes of cookies, snowman, stars, candy canes and a couple others.

While looking back on this memory, I had thought about how my mom had always made every Christmas special.

When she would always have her old ornaments with a story behind them or having family movie nights over winter break watching Christmas movies.

My favorite thing my mom would do is one Christmas she had a scavenger hunt on Christmas morning. She or “Santa” had hidden our presents all around the house and there were clues to find out where they were.

Now I get to watch her do the same thing for my little brothers. She makes it magical. 

She always found the funniest and most creative ways to hide our Elf on the Shelf and found fun activities for us all to do as a family.

Another fond memory from the past would be waking up before the sun came up on Christmas morning with my brothers. 

We would always wake up early and have to wait for my parents to be able to open up presents.

That was always my favorite thing, being able to be around my family and favorite people throughout the best time of the year.