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Fall, my favorite season, has come to an end with the first snow of this year. This morning as Jamie and I were lifting weights we looked out the window and saw that the snow was coming down pretty good and it was actually sticking already. I knew winter was here.
Like most people I have lots of great Christmas memories from my childhood. I remember one Christmas morning opening presents when I was around eight. We had finished all of our gifts and my dad asked me to go and get his cup of coffee off of the counter in the kitchen. As I opened the door to go through the middle room I saw two brand new bicycles, both exactly the same except for the color of their seat covers. They were matching bikes for my brother and I and we could hardly wait to try them out. As a matter of fact, we didn’t wait, we put on some clothes and took them out for a spin even though it was snowing.

Me opening my gifts on Christmas morning of 1987. That’s my dad in the background.

Another Christmas morning when I was twelve my brother and I awoke to a large number of gifts and we could hardly wait to see what they were. There were two large washer and dryer sized boxes that we weren’t allowed to open until the very end. My brother and I tore through the paper of our other presents, filled with excitement wondering what might be in the two large boxes. Finally we reached the end and when we realized that it we could now open the large boxes we both looked at each other silently sharing our excitement. We worked on unwrapping the huge boxes, which was no easy task and then we could finally see what it was inside. A wonderful stereo system for our room, something we had both wanted for a long time.
As much as Christmas appeared to be about the gifts and getting when we were little it’s all too clear now what really made it so special to us. It was the people that gave what they didn’t have in order to make my brother and I feel like we did have. A truly selfless act that, at least today, I have a great appreciation for. I only hope that I can be as giving to others.