에밀리가 건네준 크리스마스 블로그를 읽는 내내 미소가 번지는거예요. 어쩜 눈앞에 그려지는것처럼 맑고 이쁜 크리스마스 얘기가 12월의 아름다움을 한층 더해 주네요.

Only two weeks into December, it's already official: it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

Christmas is obviously a religious holiday with deep roots in Christianity, but for me, Christmas has become as much a cultural and family-based holiday as it is a religious one. My first memories of Christmas do not involve the story of the manger or a visit to church, but rather time spent with my parents driving around the neighborhood to look at lights and baking cookies for Santa Clause with my mother.

Now, that I'm living on my own, I've began my own Christmas traditions, combining them with the ones from my childhood, and look forward to them every year.

My husband and I decorate our apartment every year the weekend after Thanksgiving, stringing lights around our balcony, swapping out our blue patterned dish towels for a set of red and green, and putting up our two-foot tall bright pink Christmas tree, a present from my husband during our first Christmas together. The tree is nothing like the large, real douglas fir that stood in my living room growing up, but covered in small multi-colored ornaments and topped with a small silver owl, it's fun and has become a part of our Christmas tradition.

During the weeks leading up to Christmas, aside from shopping for and wrapping presents (one of my favorite parts of the holiday season), my husband and I try to visit Stone Mountain Park, a local monument to the Civil War that creates a Christmas village every year. We walk through the park, take a train to look at the lights set up around the mountain, and stay to watch the holiday-themed laser light show on the face of the mountain. The whole experience is a little cheesy, but it's so much fun to take in all the lights in the cold open air with a cup of hot apple cider.

A few days before Christmas, we travel down to Pensacola to visit with our families, who both live in the area. We spend Christmas Eve with my husband's family, eating a small dinner, usually made up of deli classics, and opening presents from extended family. Later that night, before heading to my mother's to spend the night, my husband and I drive around looking at Christmas lights and listening to silly Christmas music just the two of us – it's time for us to come together and appreciate each other. The next morning we wake up early with my mom to have our traditional breakfast of pinwheels (small cinnamon rolls with pecan), a leftover tradition from my childhood, and exchange gifts, starting with our stockings and working our way to the larger gifts. After all the presents are opened, my mom and I usually lounge in our pajamas for a few hours watching parades on television and examining our gifts.

Later in the afternoon on Christmas day, my husband and I head back to his grandparents' house for Christmas dinner, a traditional dinner usually consisting of ham and turkey, potatoes, and lots of vegetables, as well as tons of baked goods. Before dinner, we come together as a family to pray and give thanks for each other and for the holiday. While it usually marks the end of the Christmas season, I still look forward to the time spent together after dinner, playing board games and watching movies.

By far, Christmas is my favorite holiday and I look forward to all of the aspects of it every year.