Good morning y’all, and a Merry Christmas to you and yours.

Commandment #20 – Cast iron is the ultimate “if you know you know”.

As my young family and I sat in the back row of the upper portion of the church on Christmas Eve, surrounded by other young families with toddler’s who all wanted to be running off somewhere else, I was reminded that the Christmas experience is exhausting for the adults involved. That’s just if we’re being honest with ourselves. Generating that Christmas magic doesn’t come easy.

As a kid, my siblings and I would sneak down the stairs while it was still dark in the AM and build the Christmas morning excitement staring at the tree. We would organize all of the presents by person for maximum unwrapping efficiency. And when the clock struck 7AM, or the sun came up (whichever was first), we would wake our parents up out of bed. When I was eight or nine, I unwrapped a Gamecube and immediately went into the stratosphere of maximum excitement. That was my favorite Christmas gift until I was 16, when after unwrapping every gift and feeling a little dejected, my Dad tossed me the keys to his car. I’ve never matched that feeling of validation, or arrival, as when I held those keys in my hand as my own for the first time.

There are several photos of me yesterday passed out on the couch at various points in the afternoon beside either my daughter or my dog. The metaphorical page has turned, and now I’m the one arriving into a phase of Christmas exhaustion while creating core memories for my little one. With any luck, I’ll get to sleep in until 7AM each year. With even more luck, I’ll be able to see that same excitement I had as a kid passed on down the line.

Happy holidays to all. Storytelling is a core value here, so please share a Christmas story with the Cast Iron Soul folks in the comments.

Enjoy the break until the New Year. Y’all be good. – Hendo

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