I know once you read this Christmas will have passed, Hanukkah will be on the 5^th day, and a sense of normalcy will probably have returned to most of your lives. Right now, as I’m writing this, it is December 22nd and holiday fever is everywhere. It’s on TV, in my classroom, in the stores, and the list goes on and on. We literally could not escape it if we tried. Many people, in fact most people, do not mind holiday fever because this is their favorite time of year. For the rest of us, you know the Grinch and Scrooge type people; this is actually not the happiest time of year. In fact it’s the most stressful, most financially burdensome, and most headache causing time of year. With all of that being said, there is one part of the holiday season that I look forward to.

There is one gift that I cannot wait to receive every single year. The box is always a cube, sometimes it’s big and sometimes it’s small, but it’s always that perfect cube shape. It’s heavy. If it’s not heavy then it’s probably not the gift.  I know, I know, get on with it already, right? A snow globe. Yes, my favorite gift every year is a snow globe.

I am aware that to many a snow globe is really nothing that extraordinary, but to me it is the one gift that makes my heart smile like no other. Now I know you may be wondering how I know to expect a globe every year. Let me explain. Every year since I was 5 my mom (or Santa) has gotten me a snow globe to open on Christmas morning. I will never forget my very first globe. A beautiful carousel horse sat inside and after I shook it the snow cascaded down around it. I remember setting it on the fireplace next to my sister’s.

I was working on opening other gifts, and the unthinkable happened. My dog’s tail hit the globe and sent it smashing to the ground. Now, this particular snow globe happened to be from Santa and I remember thinking there was no way it would ever be replaced. Lucky for me, my mom told me that she could get it touch with the big guy, and a day or two later another globe miraculously appeared at my home. I do not know what it was about that snow globe that was so magical to me, but I just loved it so much. My mom must have been able to tell how much I enjoyed it because she got another the next year, and the year after that, and so on and so forth.

My mom takes the time to hunt for special snow globes each year to go along with different events happening in my life. Sometimes this is obviously not possible, so she will just pick the most beautiful one she can get her hands on. One particular year I happened to be obsessed with Maneki Nekos, which are lucky Japanese cats with one moving paw (don’t judge, we all go through phases), and somehow my mom was able to find a globe with one of the those lucky little critters inside of it.

When I really start to think about these snow globes and why they hold so much meaning I think it really boils down to the love I have for my mom. There is a piece of her in each globe. There is a little bit of love in each one of those glass spheres. Some are fancier than others, some play music, and some are so old now that the water is tainted, but they’re all still so perfect to me.

Four years ago my niece was born. On her first Christmas I bought her a snow globe. She was only 6 months old at the time, but it did not matter to me. I wanted to start the tradition with her that my mom had started with me so many years earlier. This year I bought her a Trolls globe. If I am being honest I really wanted to keep it, but I know she’ll love it. She’s finally old enough to start understanding and appreciating the globes and she proudly displays them in her room. I cannot wait to see which globe my mom has for me. No matter what it is I know it will be perfect because it will be another piece of love to add to my already enormous collection.