I am so blessed.\u00a0 I adore my family!<\/p>\n
There is a magic of a Christmas morning that has little to nothing to do with presents.\u00a0 I love the quiet that accompanies Christmas day.\u00a0 Very few cars are on the road; most people are already at their destination enjoying the company of family and friends.\u00a0 It is maybe this once a year slightly stationary pace that I find most calming about the holiday.\u00a0 There is so much traffic leading up to Christmas-both literal and figurative; on a physical level–all the gift shopping and meal prepping, and mental stress: where, how and with whom will we spend the holidays this year?\u00a0 When the day itself finally arrives, there is a quiet that we rarely get the opportunity to experience throughout the year.\u00a0 It is the epitome of what Sunday afternoon should be.\u00a0 Walking around the neighborhood, I took pleasure in seeing more cars parked along the street than is usual.\u00a0 I took comfort in knowing my neighbors’ houses were crowded with out-of-town family members and friends.\u00a0 There is a feeling free of deadlines and the day seems longer or that ticking minutes can do so without anyone taking notice of their passing.<\/p>\n
The season itself gives us the opportunity to consider others.\u00a0 How can we celebrate our loved ones, or bring amusement to their life or make one of their days easier?\u00a0 Even if you don’t give the perfect gift it is good to know that at least once annually we are not only given the opportunity to focus outside of ourselves, but it actually is expected.\u00a0 Christmas is a day to call loved ones–as many as you can; I suppose this is the reason behind the hundred or so Christmas photo cards sent–how blessed we are to have a hundred people to receive our good wishes–that truly is the gift.<\/p>\n
This Christmas season proved itself to be the most magical of Tony’s adult life.\u00a0 We took advantage of having young children and enjoyed being young at heart.\u00a0 We enjoyed riding an antique rail car pulled by Thomas the train with Santa Clause, some elves and a musician aboard with us around Santa Cruz.\u00a0 With Sam we rode the antique merry-go-round<\/a> in San Francisco, a magic experience on its own.\u00a0 Samantha rode “The Polar Express<\/a>” all by herself for the first year–and I enjoyed waving at her enthusiastically as she passed by me.\u00a0 We walked up and down Eucalyptus Street in San Carlos<\/a>, as is tradition.\u00a0 Sam wasn’t in the most festive mood but we had a lovely time all in all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I am so blessed.\u00a0 I adore my family! There is a magic of a Christmas morning that has little to nothing to do with presents.\u00a0 I love the quiet that accompanies Christmas day.\u00a0 Very few cars are on the road; most people are already at their destination enjoying the company of family and friends.\u00a0 It […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6,9],"tags":[43,40,39,42,41],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/a-slice-of-brie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/a-slice-of-brie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/a-slice-of-brie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/a-slice-of-brie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/a-slice-of-brie.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=95"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/a-slice-of-brie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":113,"href":"http:\/\/a-slice-of-brie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95\/revisions\/113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/a-slice-of-brie.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=95"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/a-slice-of-brie.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=95"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/a-slice-of-brie.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=95"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![antique merry-go-round<\/a> in San Francisco, a magic experience on its own.\u00a0 Samantha rode “](\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/search?q=merry+go+round+san+francisco&client=firefox-a&hs=fog&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=3Qo7UoT0MOeSiQKlooD4Bw&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAQ&biw=960&bih=435&dpr=1.33#q=merry+go+round+san+francisco+enclosed&rls=org.mozilla:en-US%3Aofficial&tbm=isch&facrc=_&imgdii=3fK8sODnT7nPHM%3A%3BvVPXocCqRE_vFM%3B3fK8sODnT7nPHM%3A&imgrc=3fK8sODnT7nPHM%3A%3B7GAXmudrTEBR0M%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fi964.photobucket.com%252Falbums%252Fae128%252Frmachida%252F31487866.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fblog.machida.us%252F2010%252F12%252Fagu-fall-meeting.html%3B1023%3B764\"){kind=link}