Plot in Christmas

The traditional plot increases in suspense to the climax and then unravels the tension in the final denouement.

I find this wonderfully ironic during the holiday season.

As a child, you might have been blessed to have a wonderful family like mine.  The growing tension of the gifts and, often, travel during the holidays always built to the excitement of Christmas. Leaving friends at school, wrapping presents with my mother, helping my father make fudge, going to parties, packing the car in some Tetris configuration, and heading across the country to see loving family.

All building to the joys of Legos and French toast fondue on Christmas morning.  Unraveling the tension slowly in the next week with a quiet road trip and a late night for New Year's with cousins, the denouement over the holiday season always felt satisfying.  The memories blurred with pickled herring, Lego castles, reading to the hum of the Winnebago, my father playing Alabama Christmas ad nauseam, and my mother drinking black coffee while she and the other women worked in the kitchen.

I know not everyone has such fond memories of childhood Christmases, but mine were.

May your holiday season carry the perfect amount of suspense, may the unraveling quell all the tension, and may the denouement satisfy you in every way.

And may next year be even better.