I received a long video at 5:30 AM Christmas morning. (This morning.) With a note from my 40-year-old daughter that her son awakened at 4:30 AM, opened his 2-year-old sister’s Christmas stocking and left everything all over her bed, and then brought his stocking into his parents’ room to share the innocence of very early Christmas morning.

I loved making Christmas spirit for my kids. I loved the specialness of Christmas morning when I was a little kid. Christmas morning was proof for me to believe there was something more than whatever challenges we were enduring. Christmas morning was so big. All innocence and wonder danced in the air and when you breathed it in somehow everything was just a bit better. At that hour before the heaviness of the world awoke, there was only magic.

I loved Christmas Morning Magic so much I would wake my siblings up at 4 AM to open our stockings. It was my job as the oldest to do so. I loved Christmas Morning Magic so much I woke my own children up at 4 AM and enjoyed their wonder while listening to the grumbles of my husband. So now, with an empty nest, it was just the dogs and me at 4:30 AM, awake and breathing in the before dawn on Christmas Day Magic. Except I wasn’t alone. My grandson was awake too.

Ah. Christmas Magic.

And now, four hours later, as all Santa believing children are tearing open presents, I look out my kitchen window at the snow falling. More magic.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a Good Day.

Enjoy this brief clip from the Christmas Stocking video.