We had just left the house, the door locked behind us. I was sitting in the back seat of the family Ford station wagon on a brisk Christmas Eve, on my way to Midnight Mass.
I stared out the window as I always did, likely admiring the neighbours' christmas lights and decorations and thinking how calm and peaceful eveything seemed when I looked up into the sky. I was in completely awestruck.
In a moment that seemed eternal, I tried not to blink as I looked up into the bluish black sky and saw something so beautiful and impossible to my mind even then. It was a star. A big bright star. The biggest and brightest star I had ever seen. But not only that, I recognized the shape of it. It had a longer ray pointing down than the rest. It looked exactly like the Christmas star shared and depicted so many times in story books. I couldn't believe it. I looked away and looked back. It was still there and the calm I felt, I can still feel now in my memory.
I asked if anyone else had seen and they said no. We arrived at the chapel and went in for the ceremony. When I came out the night felt so serene, like it often does after Midnight Mass and I took a deep breath. And then my childlike excitement took over as it was time to go home and see if Santa Claus has arrived.
When I arrived home, I found something strange. The door that had been locked was already unlocked. We went in and found that "Santa" had arrived. But at that moment I realized, and readily stated, that there was no Santa. I deduced that one of my parents must have come back and left the gifts. It was sad.
This was the year a magical play-acted story came to an end for me, and one Eternal Star burned even brighter in my heart and mind.
Exercise: Winter Constellations - This is a writing prompt: "Write about winter constellations". [A Writer's Book of Days: A Spirited Companion & Lively Muse for The Writing Life by Judy Reeves pg. 197]
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