Christmas is such a happy time of the year. We spend it with family, friends, and people who mean the world to us. It’s a time to really think about what we have to be thankful for. The holidays provide you with unopened presents, loved ones, a lot of food, and stories of the old days that your dad tells every single year around this time. Those stories never get old though and they make you start to think of the stories you may tell to your kids someday.

College students are thankful for Christmas because of the month-long break. My sister is thankful because she gets to come home and visit. I am thankful because of the little things. While the presents under the tree still excite me, and family time will never get old, I still can’t get over all of the little things that happen during Christmas break.

After having finals, Christmas break is your breath of fresh air. You can sleep in a lot more and sleep a lot better knowing that you don’t have a test worth 20% of your grade that you have to take the next day. You can wake up and be lazy just because. You can help your mom decorate the Christmas tree, and watch sappy Christmas movies with your sister who is in town visiting.

You can submerge yourself in a soft, heated blanket and fall asleep on the couch. Maybe you love to work, so you can pick up a bunch of extra shifts that you couldn’t before. You can finish that book that you’ve promised yourself you would finish for months now. You could even find the motivation to clean your room and car.

Soon enough, it will be a new year. You could prepare for that. Start being the person who works out more and eats healthier. You could also start being the person who eats whatever you want. Join a yoga class and start going to bed sooner and waking up earlier. Maybe you want to recreate your wardrobe or stop settling when you can do better. Christmas break always seemed like such a magical time to me, because it was when you could really figure out what you wanted to do or be for the next year.

This year, I was thankful for the little things. I was thankful for the journal my grandma got me with my initials on the front. I was thankful for the super tight hug my sister gave me when she finally got home. I found happiness in the moments that I could sit in silence and read, or be running around like a crazy person at work when I picked up a shift. I found happiness in the smallest moments and I hope to continue this in 2017.