I can only imagine they were children filled with the anticipation that the holiday season brings.

They had already talked with Santa Claus or were going to talk to the jolly old elf and getting ready for a break from school. Then the evilest of all evil struck without warning and killed 20 of them at the most tender of ages when the world is still new and its possibilities endless.

To begin to fathom the horror and tragedy in Newton, Connecticut, is nearly impossibility. To think it happened less than two weeks before what is generally one of the happiest times in the lives of 6- and 7-year-olds only makes it sadder and more unthinkable.

What Adam Lanza did to his mother and 25 others is unimaginable. It seems, after talking with local law enforcement sources that are trying to grasp the gravity of this massacre, the 20-year-old committed a highly personal crime and was intent on taking everything close to his mother to the grave with him.

It is still too early to point fingers at what went wrong in the life of Lanza, whether it was a breakdown in the mental health system, whether he ever had adequate access to the mental health system.

It is also too early to begin questioning the issue that heavily weighs on the minds of many Americans and that is the question of guns.

It is time to remember these little victims, these innocent children who did nothing to Lanza, probably never knew this man until the blast of gunfire forever changed the lives of their parents, others who loved them and strangers from all corners of the world who are mourning the loss of their short lives.

The sad answer is Lanza did what he did and did so with the apparent wrath of the devil inside him and didn’t care he was once a 6-year-old child just opening his eyes to the wonders the world had to offer.

What matters in this is we try to support the family of the victims in whatever way we can, even if that way is just a simple prayer asking blessings on them as they grieve in what would normally be a happy time.

I can only imagine there are Christmas presents that have been wrapped and hidden from curious young eyes and I can only imagine the pain these presents will bring on Christmas morning as parents without children mourn the loss of the youngest of victims.

I have seen the pain of a father whose child died at the same age of the Sandy Hook Elementary School students. It was the pain of my own father and it was right around the time we, as a family, began decorating for Christmas. My father sat at the landing of the attic sobbing for his son, a brother I never knew. It is a memory I have discussed before and a memory forever etched in my mind.

While my brother’s death was apparently an anguished one, it was not murder. It was, however, something I believe tormented my father, who died that following April, in the years following my brother’s death.

I finally had to turn the channel Friday after listening to two to three hours of coverage on this tragedy and have since been reading the details on the Hartford Courant’s website.

Every time I read, however, I am saddened. Every time I read I am thinking about the anticipation and excitement of the holiday season I felt at that age, never once thinking then that evil incarnate would put a stop to what should be a joyous time for children. Rest in peace little ones — Lance Martin

Lance Martin is editor and publisher of rrspin.com