Cold weather, big coats, bell-ringers; it’s all evidence that Christmas is on the way! It seems like just yesterday I was beginning the first day of school in August. Wow, time seems to fly by when you’re young! If being young has anything to do with it.

I couldn’t be more ready for Christmas. We went on Wednesday to get our tree. It’s traditional in my family to get the real deal. We picked out a freshly cut, 8-foot Frasier Fur. It took my mom two hours of looking and deciding to finally pick out the right one. They all seemed to look the same to me, but she insisted that they weren’t.

We put it up that night along with all of our other decorations. Now our house looks like a true winter wonderland inside, minus the snow that the weatherman keeps saying we might get. Decorating the tree remains my favorite tradition. We always laugh at the ornaments that I made in elementary school. They’re falling apart but my mom wouldn’t throw them away for the world.

There’s not another holiday I can think of that brings everyone together and makes you smile more than Christmas. It’s the best time of year and I hope time slows down a little so Christmas will last a little longer.