Merry Christmas!!!

For those to whom I failed to wish a Merry Christmas, please accept this belated well wishing.

I sincerely hope that everybody had a wonderful holiday and was able to spend some time with friends and family. I spent the past 48 hours travelling to and from houses to visit my parents, my grandparents and my in-laws. The kids were a little harried by the time things wound down on Christmas night, but we made sure to give them a few hours here and there of "down time" so they could relax and play with their new toys.

Everybody was (and still is) pretty tired, but we all had a great time. Jason woke up the earliest (well, if you exclude Lynette that is *grin*) and even then, it was only at about 6:30, so it wasn't so bad. Both Andrew and Julia stayed in bed for another hour or so. My banging pans in the kitchen as I prepped to cook breakfast probably helped to wake them up...that and the smell of bacon and sausage cooking.

It is definitely a highlight of my holiday to watch the kids rush in to see what Santa brought them and to see their eyes light up as they open presents. Sure, it's nice to get new things myself...but honestly, I'm very satisfied with my life and don't really feel like I need anything new, so while it's exciting for me to get gifts, it's more exciting to see the kids get so excited. Julia was the last one to the living room, and both of the boys were so animated as they rushed around showing her all of the things that Santa had left.

I'm also excited that we are making some progress towards the kids being more mindful of the true meaning of Christmas. Julia's still a bit young to fully grasp it, even though she will parrot my comments...but Jason and Andrew were both able to spontaneously pull out the correct answers about the meaning of Christmas...and didn't complain too much when we read Luke 2 on Christmas Eve and sang some carols.

All in all, I had a great day and I hope everybody else did too.

Merry Christmas to all...and to all a good life. :)