Not everyone has the privilege to enjoy a Christmas tree in their house during Christmas time and that was true for our family back in Romania while growing up. It was mostly lack of money masked under some religious excuse, but we knew it, understood it and… did something about it. Well, my brother Sergiu did something about it, we just brought our lists of requests to him knowing that he’ll take care of the rest, no questions asked. For those of you that don’t know yet, we were a large family of twelve children growing in luxurious poverty back in Romania, mostly due to our Christian status.

So you see, for us kids, in lieu of what the religious authorities believed, it was very important to have a Christmas Tree. It brought a spark of magic and joy and we needed every spark possible. So Sergiu, as usual, got to work and we would end up with a Christmas Tree or a large branch, or a crooked tree or a small ghostly looking tree, most likely the one nobody else wanted, but we didn’t care. We had our tree, and we loved it as if it were our best friend, decorating it the best we could. To this day a Christmas Tree is very important to me. It reminds me that magic and joy are still available. The lights on the tree and all those sparkly decorations bring out the kid in me that wants to jump up and down, clapping happily and laughing as if pain and disappointment no longer exist. I’m grateful that my brother Sergiu did not let past life circumstances interfere with our goals and came through every time:)

So enjoy that Christmas Tree, if you have one. If you don’t I hope you enjoyed this story:)