
Family is coming but the grandchildren are older, so the magic is more subtle. Each year the holidays create new memories of magic. One of my earliest is when I was almost 6. By almost I mean the five days before. That year we spent Christmas with my aunts and uncles, cousins and grandmother in Brooklyn so my mom would be close to her New York City hospital. I remember my cousin coming into my room after I had gone to bed and shaking my stocking. For a minute I thought it was Santa but then I thought, “It’s too early for Santa.” I remember my dad letting us into our dark house the next day when we returned to Connecticut. I remember the phone ringing five days after Christmas, my dad announcing a special birthday present for me, my sister Margot.