Merry Christmas Eve Eve!

My love for the the eves of holidays all stems from one specific Christmas from when I was little. My best friend spent the night, we slept on an air mattress in the playroom adjacent to my parents bedroom where colored lights were strung in the giant windows & Prancer played on repeat on the tiny television.We were maybe eight years old, and spent that entire day (the 23rd) doing festive stuff around my house, building snow forts with my dad & brothers, making Christmas cookies with my mom, painting our nails red & green, and reapplying layer after layer of Lip Smackers Vanilla Frosting lip gloss that we had both gotten from the "elves" in our stockings. I can't even smell that lip gloss without immediately being taken back to that day. And I remember us being so excited that since it was the day before Christmas eve, that technically it was Christmas Eve EVE!

Another year, my parents (Santa) got my oldest brother the most coveted present of all, a six foot tall, Michael Jordan cardboard stand-up. And while all five of us were sneaking down the stairs to peek at our presents at the crack of dawn, my youngest brother couldn't contain his excitement for what was in the living room, and screamed at the top of his lungs "Josh got a Michael Jordan stand-up!!!" which of course woke my parents, sent them straight down the stairs to catch us in the act & caused us to wait a few grueling hours (of donut eating) before we could open our presents.

Oh, and there's the one year where I was surprised with tickets to Disney on Ice & I was so excited that I literally peed my pants.

I used to think that holidays could only be that fun if you were a kid, until I got to experience them while having a kid. So, while days can be stressful, struggles abundant (and patience not so much) & there are more distractions than necessary, it's Christmas Eve Eve.  And there is only a short window of years where we all get to feel like kids again when we see Christmas through our children's eyes.

So, make pancakes.

Make magic. Make merry. And most importantly, make memories.

Wishing you all the MERRIEST CHRISTMAS & happiest everything from the Garvin Family.