"rum pum pum pum" says the little drummer boy.

I love Christmas. I love the smells and the lights and the family activities. When I say family, I don't mean extended family. Not that I don't love my extended family...I do tremendously. It is just that things get a little stressful when I go to my grandmother's house one night and then to my grandfather's house (whom she is no longer married to) the next night. Same people, different grandparent. Gets a little weird.

Anyways, I love Christmas.


Another thing I love (when I can't get to Starbucks and get a 6-pump, grande, Pumpkin Spice Latte) is hot chocolate. I love it. It warms my body. Makes me feel happy inside. Last night my mom and I decided to be spontaneous and drive to Target to buy the new Josh Groban Christmas CD. I was so very excited. On our way home, we decided that we were going to get our pajamas on and listen to it by the fire. AH! It felt like Christmas. What an amazing feeling. I had these visions of mom and I crying by the fire together, wrapped up in a big quilt, enjoying the effortless Josh serenading us with praises to Baby Jesus.

That is not what transpired.

We got home. Changed clothes. I decide to make hot chocolate to complete my Christmas vision. The only kind we had was a can of Crate & Barrel White Hot Chocolate mix. Well, I figured it was Crate & Barrel so it had to be good. Not so much. It tasted like hot milk with sugar in it. (Which, I guess, is exactly what hot chocolate really is. But that is besides the point.) I had to pour it out, which made me sad. Mom sat on the couch with a magazine. I sat in the recliner and pulled out my Child Development and Psychology homework. Wasn't quite the Christmas vision that had conjured itself up in my head, but that's okay. Then, "The Little Drummer Boy" came on. It is simply the most beautiful Christmas arrangement I've ever heard. I felt like it just kept getting better and better. And THEN they added the bagpipes. I mean, really. You can't get much better than that. All in all, it still felt like Christmas. And now I know more about children's fine motor development skills from ages 5-8.