Day 21 | Advent Calendar
The Joy of Together by Deborah Bryan
Late last Christmas Eve, I stood smiling in a Southern California drugstore parking lot. For a moment, I lifted my face toward the palm trees and stars twinkling in the clear sky above me.
I climbed into my car and drove home to wrap my drugstore presents for my little boys. I kept smiling the whole drive home.As a little girl in Oregon, my Christmases were hardly balmy. All the same, I felt my childhood and my mom–almost seven years gone from this physical world now–in that moment spent staring skyward.
As the eldest of four children in a single-parent household, I was often my mom’s partner in present-wrapping. She’d awaken me to help wrap presents mere hours before my siblings would unwrap them.
I got to spend those last-minute moments wrapping gifts and basking in a special kind of warmth: togetherness with my mom.
Last-minute purchases wrapped at the last minute didn’t make for less enjoyable Christmases for me. If anything, these things made them brighter.
When my siblings awakened shrieking with glee, I cherished knowing I’d played a bit part in that.
The joy of Christmas wasn’t in perfect, perfectly wrapped presents, but in each other.
Author Bio:
As a little girl, I dreamed I’d be many exciting things when I grew up. While I’ve become none of those things in the first 38 years of my life, I’m delighted by what I have become: a dreamer, a doer, and mother to two exuberant little boys.
Solveig Werner 
Reblogged this on willowdot21 and commented:
Hi this is part of Solveig Werner’s at https://solveigwerner.Day 21 | Advent CalendarThe Joy of Together by Deborah Bryan!Family memories and values. I shall be trying to reblog the entries daily and all the ones today! By the way my entry is December 22nd. Happy Advent . Enjoy. xxx
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you! Looking forward to reading yours.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Memories and family values! xxxxx
LikeLiked by 1 person
🙂 Remembering this helps me feel low-key through all the holiday hubbub. We’ve already got what we need here. ♥
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes I know what you mean, have a lovely Christmas xxxx
LikeLike
Beautiful. 🙂
LikeLike
Exactly. It’s not how much you spend but who you spent time with.
S.w.e.e.t. ❤
LikeLiked by 1 person
Exactly!
Thank you. ♥
LikeLiked by 1 person
YOU are welcome. 🙂
LikeLike
Magical memories of special times indeed 🙂
LikeLike
Just perfect. You are exactly who you are meant to be at this moment. And if dreamer is among those things, then you are blessed.
Thanks to Solveig for sharing your post.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Awesome post 👌🏻
LikeLike