Christmas in the Daniels' household has always been a big deal. Growing up, Noel learned to love it, but as she prepares to spend one last Christmas at home before leaving for culinary school in France, will her last Christmas be her undoing, or wil...
Growing up in a home that's obsessed with all things Christmas was simultaneously fun and overwhelming. It wasn't always easy explaining to your friends why the Christmas decorations were up in October.
But, at 25, Noel had come to embrace and love her family's Christmas craziness. Her 22-yr-old sister Holly, however, was so against it she had started going by her middle name of Jasmine, instead of her Christmas-themed birth name of Holly. Of course she also wore dark brown lipstick and ripped up black pantyhose.
Every year for as long as Noel could remember, every room of her family home was decked out for Christmas. Stepping into the Daniels household during the Christmas season was like stepping into the winter wonderland display at Bloomingdale's.
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It could be tedious and time consuming but Noel had to admit she was really going to miss it. Just after New Year's, she was leaving for Paris to study culinary arts and science. France was going to be her home for at least the next two years. More if her dreams of opening her own Paris café came true.
For now, however, she was home. Helping her little sister go through boxes of Christmas ornaments.
"Hey, hand me that candy cane Hol -"
"It's JASMINE!" she said with an almost feral like growl
Holly/Jasmine was a force to be reckoned with. She had just returned home from backpacking across Europe with her boyfriend Dallas. Yes, Dallas. His parents were clearly the last of the hippie generation.
"Sorry your highness! What's your issue with Christmas now anyway?"
Jasmine sighed warily.
"It's not necessarily Christmas it's just. . .never mind."
"No, what?"
"Nothing, okay, it's nothing!"
"Noel, honey, could you run down to the store for me?"
Sharon Daniels was almost always in a good mood. Christmas only made her perpetual happiness stronger. In fact, it was her own meeting with Noel & Jasmine's father Robert that started the Daniels Christmas obsession.
Sharon & Robert met in college the weekend before Christmas when they were snowed in the school library overnight. As they tell it, they fell in love right away and vowed to always make Christmas a huge part of their lives and their children's lives.
"Yeah Mom, I need to head home soon anyway." Noel said
"I do wish you would stay here Noel, you're going to be leaving the country soon, I want all the time I can possibly get with you! Besides, that apartment is so tiny!"
Her mother was referring to Noel's decidedly less festive one bedroom apartment on the outskirts of their suburban Chicago town. While she was right that it was far from the Taj Mahal, it was Noel's pride and joy. It was the first place her job as a teacher's assistant for a local Preschool would allow.
