Editor's Note: Make Memories This Holiday

It looks like it’s almost that time of the year again: Christmas! I know I’ve said this a handful of times, but I swear, this really, really is my favorite time of the year. Although I love the fall, and I really enjoy the month of October, there is a very special place in my heart for Christmas. The reason(s) why I love this time of the year so much is because of the energy that brings out in everyone—along with the food (shocker!), decorations, weather and celebrations.

Even when I was a little munchkin—an extra little munchkin running around with an uneven bowl-cut, courtesy of my mother who was not especially talented at giving hair cuts—Christmas was extra special, because that meant presents. And presents meant putting together an extremely long list of all the knick knacks that I wanted and ever so casually gave my parents. You know, slip it under their bedroom door or tape it onto the front door as if Santa left it there.

Presents aside, for years—and I’m talking from the time I could walk until the day my brother told me Santa Claus didn’t exist (heartbreaking)—I remember being very sleepy-eyed at four-o’clock in the morning as my dad scooped me up in his arms and brought me down to our beautifully decorated Christmas tree, and under it laid my long wish list of knick knacks in physical form, each perfectly wrapped with a pretty, shiny bow on top.

These are some of my fondest memories of Christmas. Not because of the physicality of the presents, but the significance of them—and the events to follow.

My mom and dad are two of the most hardworking, caring, giving and selfless people I know. With whatever was left in their pockets, they both fled to the U.S. during the Vietnam War, so they know struggle. As they grew their lives together in this foreign country, facing financial hardships and slowly building their impregnable empire, they made sure that their children did not endure and experience a single ounce of struggle that they did. And while my brother and I did not necessarily need (or deserve, really) to have every single present crossed off our Christmas lists each year, they did so out of love, because they wanted us both to live fruitful lives.