Current Mood: Euphoric and Grateful

I have always been a bit fanatical about Christmas. There is so much I love about it – the smells, the shopping, the music, the surprises, the decorations, the family and friends! Despite growing up, it has never lost its magic for me.  But when I had Cecilia it took my excitement to a whole new level! Last year was absolutely the most perfect Christmas I ever could have imagined. We spent Christmas Eve, just the three of us at home. We played hard and then read Cecilia, “The Night before Christmas” before tucking her in for the night. Ryan and I enjoyed a delicious dinner together and watched “Elf” while we helped Santa deliver his goods. Cecilia, who normally slept straight through the night, must have been as excited as we were because right around midnight she woke up. We were still up and so I brought her out to the living room and tried to rock her back to sleep. She was so happy and awake though, and she immediately spied the gifts under the tree. We let her at one of them and she made the classic, “Oh, I can’t believe this!” face. It was the perfect reaction, which we never expected to get from her at only eight months! A few hours later, Cecilia woke up again and when I got up to get her I discovered snowflakes were falling to the ground. I sat and held my sweet baby watching those perfect, sparkling, flakes as they danced down to their soft bed below. My heart filled completely with awe that this perfect, storybook moment was happening to me. Our Christmas continued on as idyllic as that moment, like I had stepped inside a box of Christmas book illustrations and could actually see the glow of the fireplace that graces every respectable Christmas picture.

That perfect season of joy will always be precious to me. And I am looking forward to another one in just a few short weeks! Cecilia has started to understand little bits and pieces of Christmas over the past few days. She doesn’t care that much about the big tree in our living room, but she adores her own little, pink tree. She cradles her baby Jesus, whom she calls, “Jeez” and just yesterday stopped calling Joseph, “George” and now calls him, “Papa”. She sings “Ho,ho,ho,ho,ho,ho” when she sees Santa  and clicks her tongue when I ask her what reindeer do. She LOVES to dance to Christmas music and we never, ever get tired of watching her! She is also shockingly gentle around the Christmas tree and will just barely touch the branches and say, “Pretty”.

I would imagine that no one looks at my life and thinks…”Wow! She has it all!” But I’m here to tell you…I really do, folks. I wouldn’t swap my life with anyone. With everyday that I give thanks – the blessings keep on coming. I thank God for the reason we celebrate each December and for the many other gifts he continues to give me and my family.