My favorite time of year

I’ve said before that the “gauntlet” of Halloween through New Year’s Day is one of, if not my favorite, times of the year – and it’s true. I believe in magic – the make-believe kind and the kind forged by loving moms and dads and a house full of love. You feel that magic at its strongest around the holidays.

Even during hard times (Millennials, we’ve seen our share!), you can crowd around the fireplace on a snowy day, Christmas decorations glinting in the light, Perry Como or Johnny Mathis crooning on the radio. Maybe there’s a Christmas movie on the TV – and a cup of warm hot cocoa in your hand.

Whatever it looks like, there’s a kind of peace in that moment, surrounded by the ones you love. Whether you’re religious and believe in the Baby born in a stable so many years ago or not, Christmas is a season of promise, renewal and hope.

I look ahead, a few short weeks from the time I write these words, imagining clutching a cup of coffee and looking out my kitchen window at the snow blanketed street, as my neighbor’s children and puppy begin to play in the snow.

I think of a line from one of the great poets (Browning, Google tells me – I know it courtesy of a certain red-headed book heroine and her green-gabled home) – “God’s in his heaven – all’s right with the world!”

by Andy Haman