Magical Christmas

As a child, Christmas was an enchanted holiday.
My fifth Christmas was the most magical of all.
That day was made for little kids like me.
That huge colorfully decorated tree looked as though,
It had escaped from a magical fairyland to come live with me.
The beautiful angel sitting on top was watching over me, this I knew.

And that wasn't all.
Scattered beneath the tree like multicolored boulders were the gifts.
Most of them were marked for my little sister and me.
All from the different people in our lives who loved us.
We were often found under the tree, rattling presents.
Telling each other our present was the best.

I would gently shake the box at first, with my little ear pressed to the side.
My candy stained tongue stuck out as I concentrated.
Then I would grab a hold of the package with sticky hands,
And really heave it up and down and around.
Hoping to guess what was in my pretty package.
But really didn't want to know just yet.

What a wonderful magical game.
It was a wondrous mystery, a season of delight.
Late on that Christmas Eve night, we went to church.
Before we left my sister and I looked longingly at the tree.
Couldn't wait to get back from church.
Then it would finally be time to open those presents.

Excitement was racing thru our veins.
We could hardly contain ourselves.
Barely patient, we wiggled thru the service with our legs a swinging.
After an eternally long sermon,
(Surely it was three times as long as Sundays)
We were finally rewarded, headed home at last.

But what's this, there's more presents under the tree.
More than was there when we left.
That couldn't be.
We race to the tree to see what was what.
There were lots of packages from Santa to my sister and me.
What a wondrous magical time.

For years I wondered how did that happened.
I pondered and pondered how did those extra presents get there.
Cause I knew there really wasn't a Santa Claus.
Or was there?
Finally twenty years later, I asked my mother.
Her answer floored me "Didn't you notice that I was the last one out the
door?