December 24 — 1:12 PM
Rosalind:Okay, leaving Portland with J and the parents!
Ophelia:See you soon, drive safe!! ??
[Group Chat: Valentine Sisterhood]
December 24 — 9:03 PM
Courtney:[Picture of their family in matching Christmas pajamas]
Rosalind: Awwww, you guys are so cute!!!!
Courtney: I know, my husband’s a dork.
Ophelia: So, so cute!!
Ophelia: Gotta love matching PJs!
Parveen:[Picture of them in Ophelia & Nicolas’s house around the dinner table]
Parveen: Have a wonderful time, see you tomorrow!!
Ten
Chapter 10
Ilove Christmas.
The most wonderful time of the year… or so we wish it to be.
It always starts with the Christmas lights, the Advent calendars, the early Christmas shopping, and the pretty window displays… Everything to remind everyone that the season of twinkling lights, Christmas carols, and grand trees is beginning. It’s inevitable, from the Christmas sweaters that pop up in the office, the Christmas markets that land overnight, and all the decorations that spruce up every house, every street, every shop.
For many, it’s also the start of something less… visible, and yet just as significant.
It’s a month of making time to decorate, juggling holiday events, brainstorming gift ideas, coordinating with relatives, planning holiday menus, and scheduling travel. It’s endless checklists, shopping trips, wrapping chaos, and text exchanges. Sometimes, it’s a bit of financial stress, social anxiety, familialpressure, or a last-minute travel disaster that sends everything spiraling out of control. And for some, the season carries the ache of missing someone we love.
If there is one thing I learned last year, it’s that Christmas is magic, but that magic is a labor of love. It’s the friends, relatives, and loved ones who come together to make it happen. When we were kids, everything seemed to appear out of thin air! Like… magic. As adults, we know better. We know that behind every twinkling light, every cookie, every wrapped present, there is someone quietly making it happen. Not Santa, not an elf, but a good soul who put their time into it. And I believe this is where the real magic lies.
It’s holding hands with your partner as you shop for Christmas decorations for your new house and making a date out of it. It’s bickering endlessly with your siblings over the best Christmas menu over many, many group calls. It’s keeping your kitties from smashing the baubles and toppling the Christmas tree, and finding the patience to laugh about it when they inevitably succeed. It’s showing up to work in ridiculous sweaters and sharing not only your holiday bakes with colleagues, but also the anxiety of the upcoming family spats. It’s exchanging holiday playlists and Grinch memes with your little sister and laughing late into the night about it. It’s planning your guests’ bedding with extra care so they feel welcome for their first Christmas in your new home.
It’s the sister-in-law who arrives the day before to wake up early to cook with you, and the nieces who proudly volunteer to help bake the cookies and set the table. It’s the brother who makes every last-minute grocery run with his toddler in tow so his wife can focus in the kitchen, and chauffeurs your partner’s mother from the airport. It’s the siblings and parents who travel long distances because they don’t want to lose a singleminute together, and the ones who come a little later because they’re honoring what works best for their own little family.
It’s your partner who sends you stolen glances and warm smiles across the room, because there’s that magic sparkling between you.
Christmas is everyone who comes together to make that magic happen.
“Ophelia, this isbeautiful!”
I can’t help but beam as Courtney gapes at our living room. She’s been here before, but she hadn’t seen it in person with our Christmas decorations yet, and I have to admit, it isveryclose to my Pinterest boards! Because we painted our living room a soothing forest green, it was easy to slip into that vintage Christmas theme I’d fantasized about. That, and the fact that Nicolas definitely didnotlisten to me about the budget and went out of his way to make my vision happen…
I was ready to wait a year or two to see it finalized, and yet here I stand, on Christmas morning, ridiculously happy as our living room looks straight out of a Hallmark movie! Of course, our Christmas tree is the focus of attention, with the roaring fire next to it, and the large leather couch facing it! We went with a classic red-and-gold theme, with real pine branches everywhere, velvet ribbons, plaid accents, and earthy tones… A warm, vintage, and timeless decor, right out of a Dickens novel!
“Thank you,” I beam. “Mom brought us a bunch of decorations she wasn’t using, and I got a ton of free tree branches from the place where we bought our tree… Oh, and Solange gifted us that beautiful golden cutlery set!”
“Did she?” Courtney whispers conspiratorially.
I nod. I have to admit, the golden tablewareisperfect for my theme and our dinner table! I had honestly planned to save us some money and use Nicolas’ silverware this year, but whenI took Solange with me on one of our shopping trips after she arrived, she insisted that my vision would be “complete” and that every home needed a nice cutlery set. And honestly, I couldn’t refuse…
