Freshly-cut Christmas trees smelling of stars and snow and pine resin–inhale deeply and fill your soul with wintry night.

— John J. Geddes

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas with friends and family! Although we all hopefully like our presents, it is important to remember what is the true meaning of Christmas! We reflect as the year comes to an end and recall our failures and achievements these past 11 months. Today I woke up, put on makeup, went downstairs to greet my grandparents and uncle, and ate breakfast that my dad cooked (scrambled eggs and potatoes). After breakfast, we opened gifts and boy there were many wrapped gifts under the Christmas tree! Take a look at our colorful and bright tree below! Then we went to a historic small town decorated with wreaths, window stores with mini Santa Clauses, Mrs. Clause, and cute mini reindeers. We took many pictures and in fact, I saw bright red holly berries! I wore a green and white warm sweater. Then we went to get drinks at a Taiwanese bubble tea place and then to a Korean bakery to buy bread for breakfast tomorrow morning. We went home and I put on Christmas songs on TV and Youtube. Now I am typing this blog post while my family is sitting here with me in the living room and they are watching TV. I feel joyful today because Christmas is my favorite holiday and I just love the smell of vanilla and peppermint from a candle that my sister purchased for me from a small business owner and the taste of brownies with white icing that my other sister baked yesterday. I also love cheesy, corny, but romantic Hallmark Christmas movies on TV with predictable plot lines, but the happy endings never fail to make me feel pleased and blissful. I also love seeing red poinsettia flowers in the living room. But I still have not see any red cardinal birds yet outside! I hope to see one before winter is over next year. I also love seeing beautiful Christmas themed decors and lights outside and inside a Hallmark store including angels and Charlie Brown and his iconic dog Snoopy! Oh I do not want Christmas to be over! I wish it could be longer than two short days. I do not want to wait another year for Christmas to come again. I guess that is what makes Christmas special and memorable. The scent of fresh pine trees and cranberry-scented room spray are wonderful! Even the colors green, red, and navy velvet blue are spectacular to wear on Christmas! What I love about Christmas is the joy in the air, time to be spent with family, decorating the house and the tree with fragile ornaments including small colored glass balls and Christmas music. There are so many things that I love about Christmas. During Christmas time, we should take a moment to slow down and enjoy the here and now. And remember that we are blessed to be here and alive with heat and a roof over our heads. I have been listening to Michael Bublé’s deluxe Christmas album and I enjoy listening to Wham!’s Last Christmas and Mariah Carey’s All I want for Christmas is you. They have great voices and I always listen to these songs when the holiday season comes around. What presents did you get this year? I hope that one day I will rent a wooden cabin in the snowy mountain and have my family there and we all sit near the fireplace and drink hot cocoa. Then we all go outside and take pictures in the snow! I hope to achieve that dream one day in the future! That would be fun. And of course there will be no Wifi. Just quality time together. A delicious dinner at the cabin even sounds wonderful! Where would you like to go for Christmas next year with your loved ones? France? or Montana? Or do you prefer to stay at your cozy home or your parents’ home for Christmas? What presents did you purchase for your loved ones this year? Let me know in the comments below!