EDITORIAL: It doesn't get any better than this

Savor this day.

Whether you’re reading your newspaper in the tranquility of a quiet Christmas morn or amid the post-apocalyptic ruins of knee-deep gift wrap and unwashed dishes, behold. This is the absolute pinnacle of the calendar year.

Now, some people will mumble about a letdown today, depression settling into the vacuum left behind Santa’s sleigh.

Are they kidding?

Christmas Day puts paid to months of pressure to out-brilliant the neighbor’s lights, to eclipse your loved ones’ wildest (and unrealistic) wishes (and expectations), to staring at the ceiling knowing how much harder you’re going to have to work to make up for a little seasonal slacking here and there.

If you busted the budget a bit but you did it with generous intent, take some comfort in knowing that the world gives back. Yep, you really do reap what you sow.

So relax. Today is a day to relish the joyful sounds of kids and grandkids, the smiles on wrinkled faces, to make mental photographs that capture all the senses, then store them in that private album of life’s highlights you’ll review when darker days descend.

If there are tears for those no longer here to share this day, don’t brush them away in embarrassment; embrace them, because they are salty little packages dripping with love.

And when nobody’s looking, when the household is sliding off into sweet slumber, give yourself a pat on the back. With satisfaction, you can echo the immortal words of Clark W. Griswold as you consider the towering Christmas mountain you’ve summited yet again:

I did it.