I don't know anyone who perceives and probes the world of children and garners from it such great truth and wisdom as Charles Schulz in his Peanut cartoons.  One year during the Christmas season, he put into drawing and dialogue one of those common exchanges between children that has deep and uncommon meaning.  Sally asked Charlie Brown, "Is it Christmas yet?"  "Four more days," responds Charlie Brown.  "How come it takes so long?" Sally wants to know.  Without even looking up from the TV, Charlie Brown gets off one of those off-the-cuff philosophical statements that one can chew on all day.  "Christmas is on the top of steep hill," he said, "and the closer you get to it, the steeper the hill is."  The answer baffled Sally, but it sounded profound, so she is convinced and she repeats it to Snoopy. 

Christmas is at the top of a steep hill.  Now every child can identify with that. But somehow we adults fail to grasp the significance of it. We're in such a hurry to "get Christmas over with" that Christmas leaps out of hiding seemingly and rushes at us, taking our breath away.  But we don't have to jostle our memories too hard to recall how as children the days after Thanksgiving would drag endlessly on – poking along.  And it seemed as though Christmas would never come.  Charlie Brown captured the sentiment of children – Christmas is on the top of a steep hill and the closer you get to it, the steeper the hill is.