When we were childless, we dreamed of Christmas with a house full of kids. This year, was by far, starting with the beauty of a wonderful Christmas Eve, the best Christmas we have ever had. Sure it wasn’t white, sure we had colds, but it was full and filled with joyful smiles. And wonderful in great ways.

It started on Christmas Eve. We had to cancel our dinner party plans since we had be sporting on and off fevers for several days. We were feeling a bit better so we went out to a local restaurant for dinner. We had a great time and I enjoyed having someone else doing the cooking and cleaning! Merry Christmas to me!

When we got home, we put the kids to bed. Emma couldn’t get to sleep though as she was too excited. She was still awake at 11pm when I had to run out to 7-11 to get more batteries. At 12:30, daddy and mommy fell asleep.

Kids woke us up at 8am. I brushed my teeth and stumbled down to get some coffee. The kids were all excited about their stockings and all the treasures found within. Santa gave them some earrings (that mommy would NEVER have let them have) with a bit of “dangle” to them… so the girls were thrilled. And Noah was impressed Santa put Yu-Gi-Oh cards in his stocking. So daddy and mommy settled down and we started letting each child open a gift.

Dinara, always taking things literally, didn’t understand till the day before Christmas Eve that it wasn’t going to be a white Christmas. She believed, just as the song said that “all your Christmases be white”. She was a might bit disappointed that there wasn’t going to be snow on Christmas but decided that she would be consoled with all her presents. She especially liked her new doctor’s set complete with coat that says Doctor Dinara. She was also charmed by her Polly Pocket Roller Coaster, Dog Show Playhouse and new Polaroid Camera.

Noah was thrilled with his new comfy pj’s. He wore them all day. He told us that he thinks that train conductors wear these Jammies under their clothes to keep warm. He has enjoyed his new Nintendo Video Games, a Blinx 2 game for Daddy’s new Xbox, Geotrax Train Set, and Lincoln Logs.

Emma knew she was getting something big for Christmas. She had been pumping us for days about what it could be. What were the hints? She opened a few gifts first before she set out on her quest to find the gift we talked about. I admit I was bit worried that perhaps we had hyped the gift a bit much. I mean after all, when you have weeks of hype, you could be set up for big disappointment if it doesn’t live up to expectations. And so when she opened up her digital camera she threw her hands up in the air and squealed with delight. Then, the most amazing thing happened. Her eyes welled up with tears of gratitude and joy. She was overcome with happiness and just couldn’t believe she got a digital camera. It was the best moment in our Christmas giving. Then she flung herself on us and told us thank you. It was priceless. She also got various CDs, a new Hoodio from the Gap, books, and board games.

We had a great breakfast of Christmas Egg Casserole and Cinnamon rolls. Then settled in to play with the kids. For a snack we had some cheese, crackers, summer sausage and olives and smoothing sparkley to drink. It was a wonderful quiet afternoon.

As I finished up cooking the dinner of Prime Rib and my very special smashed potatoes with Dinara helping me roll the crescent rolls and Noah roaring with delight over winning a game of Monkey Ball and Emma playing Monopoly on the floor with her Dad… I realized what a wonderful glorious day this had been. i know I sound hokey… but it really was so great and I just relished every single moment of it. It wasn’t Currier and Ives but it was special. And as I watched my children’s faces in the twinkling candllelight of our Christmas dinner, I really did say a prayer and say thank you. I just know I am so blessed.

And I had to remind myself of this “you are blessed moment” after we finished our pumpkin pie and I began to survey my surroundings and realized how every room on the downstairs floor looked like Toys R Us had dropped a bomb. I thought I had tried to stay on top of it during the day? There was toys and parts of boxes, toys and papers and those damn Polly Pockets spewed everywhere. We went from an idyllic before to an idyllic in a different way after.

I hope all of you had a very Happy Holiday. For us, this was one for the memory books. One I know that my husband John and I will think of when we are alone and the kids are gone. It was as close to perfect as you can get.

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