On Friday, Santa Claus paraded down Fifth Avenue at the end of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. This event doesn’t just signify that the Macy’s parade has come to an end. It marks a very special time of the year, my favorite time of the year, the 1997 Holiday Season.

On Wednesday, I saw Alien Resurrection. (Quick review: It’s the best of the four. GO SEE IT!) Anyway, the beginning of the holiday season is like my own resurrection. From the moment Santa arrived at Macy’s last Friday, a dormant part of me awoke from an eleven-month sleep with the energy of all eight reindeer. “It’s Christmas! It’s Christmas!” I yelled while staring at Kris on the TV screen. (I can call Santa “Kris” – because we go back a long way.)

Once I get past the initial excitement, I begin to develop “Christmasitis,” which makes me run to the closet and pull out all of my Christmas stuff. Thanksgiving night, my girlfriend and I put on our Christmas hats, popped in the Christmas videos, turned on the Christmas music, and began to turn my house into the North Pole.

My all time favorite Christmas video is Emmett Otter’s Jug Band Christmas and my favorite album is John Denver and the Muppets: A Christmas Together. So, in keeping with tradition, I went to put Emmett on. My girlfriend suggested that I put on It’s A Wonderful Life instead. “You know, I’ve never seen that,” I told her. “You mean you never saw that?!” She asked a question that I have heard so many times from everyone who asked me if I saw it and I said no. So, I figured it was time to finally sit down and see it. So, I put down Emmett and popped in It’s A Wonderful Life.

As soon as the screen said, “The End,” my girlfriend wiped the tears from my eyes and didn’t have to ask me if I liked it. “Thanks to you, I have a new Christmas favorite,” I told her.

The movie got me thinking of my life. How it is a wonderful life. How I have a wonderful job working with wonderful people. How I’m going to spend a wonderful Christmas with my wonderful family and my wonderful friends, and how I have a wonderfully wonderful girlfriend to share my favorite time of year with.

It is a wonderful life.