Merry Christmas!

And numerous indeed are the hearts to which Christmas

brings a brief season of happiness and enjoyment.  How many

families, whose members have been dispersed and scattered far
and wide, in the restless struggles of life, are then reunited, and

meet once again in that happy state of companionship and mutual

goodwill, which is a source of such pure and unalloyed delight;

and one so incompatible with the cares and sorrows of the world,

that the religious belief of the most civilised nations, and the rude

traditions of the roughest savages, alike number it among the

first joys of a future condition of existence, provided for the

blessed and happy!  How many old recollections, and how many

dormant sympathies, does Christmas time awaken!


We write these words now, many miles distant from the spot

at which, year after year, we met on that day, a merry and joyous

circle.  Many of the hearts that throbbed so gaily then, have

ceased to beat; many of the looks that shone so brightly then,

have ceased to glow; the hands we grasped, have grown cold; the

eyes we sought, have hid their lustre in the grave; and yet the old

house, the room, the merry voices and smiling faces, the jest,

the laugh, the most minute and trivial circumstances connected

with those happy meetings, crowd upon our mind at each

recurrence of the season, as if the last assemblage had been but

yesterday!  Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the

delusions of our childish days; that can recall to the old man the

pleasures of his youth; that can transport the sailor and the

traveller, thousands of miles away, back to his own fireside and

his quiet home!

{The Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens}

Merry Christmas y'all! Best wishes in this holiday season!

xoxo,

Royar

{The Young Southern Prep}