As soon as the Johnsons cleared the table of their thanksgiving feast, they were already getting into the festive spirit for their favorite holiday of the year, Christmas. Just like any other 11 year old Jamal Johnson was eager for the big day to come, this was his favorite time of the year.  When Dec.1 came, Jamal began the countdown on his advent calendar, he even set a countdown on his casio wrist watch. Jamal had his wish list for Santa ready by the middle of November and had been planning it since halloween.
The Johnsons heavily celebrated the holiday season with decorations inside and out. The outside of their house wrapped in glistening lights from top to bottom, when they were all lit up you could hardly tell if it was day or night. The lawn covered with festive snowman and reindeer pulling santa’s sleigh. On the inside the bannisters were wrapped in green, silver and red tinsel along with silver lights that reflected off the tinsel creating a radiant glow of christmas colors, the house was always filled with the smell of flavorful cookies baking in the oven, and at the heart of all the festive decorations lied the tree; at the bottom of the tree lied a holiday train wrapped around the base circling around all the presents lying under the tree; Camouflaged in lustrous tinsel, ornaments the tree was covered from top to bottom with glistening lights and topped off with a luminous golden star on top.
One cold blizzardy night, the Johnsons decided to cuddle up near the fire and watch some christmas movies. “Jamal!!” called Mrs.Johnson
“What?!” Jamal yelled from his room
“Come watch a movie with us!”
“Nah I’m good”
“I’ll make some hot cocoa!’’
“No thanks, mom”
Mr. Johnson piped in “Cmon son come have some family time, i haven’t seen you all day.”
“Fine I’ll come down for 15 minutes,” and that’s exactly what he did, he went right back upstairs to be alone in his room.
This wasn't the first time Jamal has flaked on family holiday activities, when the Johnsons went to go pick out a tree, Jamal decided he’d rather stay home to watch netflix and chill with his best friend. He even skipped on decorating the tree.
One day his mom came back from the grocery store with supplies to bake cookies and was looking for Jamal's help, “Jamal come help me bake cookies!”
“I’m busy!’’ Jamal replied from the basement while fixated on playing video games.
Christmas was almost 5 days away and Jamal still hasn’t helped in any of the holiday festivities. His mom begins to put in more work to come up with ideas to get him involved but none seem to get Jamal’s interest.
Mr.Jamal came home with a gingerbread house, looking to spend some quality time with his family.
“Jamal, come over here and help me out with this.”
“What is it?” Jamal curiously looked over to see what his dad had.
“It’s a gingerbread house; Help me build it.”
Jamal’s dad could tell he was uninterested  “C’mon son christmas is almost here and we haven’t done anything together.”
“I don’t feel like it.”
“Fine, honey would you like to help me?”
“I’d love to, just let me get dinner started” answered Mrs. Johnson
Later that night Jamal came back downstairs and saw the constructed house sitting on the table. He couldn’t help but feel a little left out and regretful of not helping out. He felt angry at himself for passing up the opportunity to help but no matter what he couldn't turn back time and redo it.
At last the Christmas eve had arrived and Jamal couldn't be more excited for the arrival of the big guy from up north. He has been waiting for this for months now and the closer the big day came the slower the days went by. It is tradition to have a big family dinner on Christmas eve with all the relatives. During the whole day the house was filled with savory scents of the feast to come later that night. Family members started showing up one by one and soon the house was full with multiple generations of family. Everyone was downstairs socializing and catching up, all except Jamal who was hiding in his room from having to talk to his family members. His dad came upstairs to tell him to come downstairs for a bit to hangout; Jamal just sighed, stood up and shuffled out of his room.
Jamal walked into a room full of relatives that he has nothing in common with and has no interest in socializing with them. One of his grandma sees him walk in and goes over to converse with him.
“Jamal! You've grown up so much since the last i've seen you. You're turning into such a handsome young man!’’ She says as she pinches Jamal's cheeks, making him wanna leave even more.
“Yes, grandma it has been awhile. How have you and grandpa been?” Said Jamal trying to create small talk.
“We’ve been staying busy by playing bingo down at the community center and going on long walks to watch the birds.”
“Wow that sounds really interesting….. Have you ever won?”
“I haven’t but your grandpa has.”
“Oh nice, i'm gonna go get something to drink. Would you like anything?”
“No thanks dearie”
Jamal left to go to the refreshments table and saw that there was nothing but prune juice, eggnog and gin. Nothing interested him so he just settled for water. Jamal spent the rest of the evening making small talk with relatives he usually tried to avoid talking to by playing with the toy train under the tree and his beloved dog. When the feast was finally ready everybody gathered around the table to say grace and then to devour the food placed in front of them. As soon as Jamal finished his plate he asked to be excused “May I please be excused Dad?”
“Just hangout for a bit Son, I'll let you open a present early if you stay and behave”
As soon as he said that Jamal's ears perked up and he relaxed into his chair to show he was there to stay. As the night went on and the grandparents exchanged stories between each other and as the liquor started flowing the conversations began to get louder and a little wilder.
When Jamal began talking to his grandma, she began to talk about how much she hated these kind of family dinners as a child and couldnt wait to leave. Jamal always enjoyed her a lot more than his other grandparents, she didn't speak down to him like the others, she treated him like another adult. She was able to relate to him and remember what it was like to be young unlike the others who seem to have forgotten everything about being a child.
“So you hated these kinds of dinners too, Grandma?’’
“oh yeah! I couldn't wait to get them over with, all I wanted to do was open presents in the morning.”
“Me too! I really hope santa brings me what I asked for, I've been looking forward to tomorrow for awhile!.”
“But you wanna know something interesting?” Said his grandma
“what?”
“I don't think I remember any of the presents I got for christmas but I remember those seemingly everlasting dinners, it's strange to see the memories you remember the best aren't always the most magnificent times but looking back you wish you could relive it all. Trust me time goes by too fast to do anything but live in the moment.”
By that time Mr. Johnson suggested that we move to the living room to hang around the tree and open up some presents. As soon as Jamal heard this his mind automatically went to presents and completely forgot about the insight his grandma had just shared with him. The family gathered around the tree with a roaring fire in the fireplace keeping them nice and warm. When it was finally time for Jamal to open his present, he reached for a square box, wrapped flawlessly in candy cane paper with a ribbon on top. When he opened it he tore through it letting nothing slow him down. When he got past the wrapping, a lego Star Wars set lied in his hands. It was a good start to the presents and Jamal enjoyed his gift. As the evening grew old relatives trickled out of the house and soon the evening was over and everyone had left. Mr. Johnson and Mrs. Johnson both tucked Jamal into bed and told him to get some sleep because tomorrows gonna be a busy day. Jamal was to excited for tomorrow to get any kind of sleep, he tried to stay to catch santa but it got too late and he ended up falling asleep before he came.
Jamal woke up to a fresh blanket of snow lying on the ground and a bundle of presents surrounding the tree. He ran downstairs to see his mom and dad at the breakfast table waiting for him. When they gathered around the christmas tree to open presents; It took Jamal about 10 min to tear through all the gifts. Once Jamal opened his last present, he had a moment of confusion. After it was all over, Jamal felt empty hearted and disappointed even though he got every present he asked for. Leading up to this moment the anticipation was huge but being in the moment has left him disappointed. After some thinking Jamal begins to remember what his grandma had told him the other night “  Trust me time goes by too fast to do anything but live in the moment.”
Jamal had spent the whole time so focused on this moment that he had forgot to live in the moment and participate in the holiday traditions. Jamal was disappointed but at the same time he felt happy just to be with his family here and now. The Johnsons soon went to go enjoy the fresh snow and it didn't take long for Jamal to totally forget about the presents; At that time his mind was on nothing but sledding with his family.