Christmas: a week late and utterly perfect

To sum up our family Christmas this year I would have to say: GRATEFUL.

Grateful that Santa came 5 days later than his usual rounds.  Grateful that having it on a alternate day did nothing to diminish its wonder and magic.  Grateful that we selected the perfect gifts for the girls to reflect what we want for them, imaginative, creative, self-expressive FUN- nary a battery in sight for their toys and at one point Ella said, "Mommy and Momma give the best gifts to me because they know me the best."  Grateful that with all our family and friends we always make a special Christmas day for the four of us where we don't leave the house and we are simply present for each other.  Grateful that there was no arguing or bickering.  Grateful that after Santa's reindeer left bells for the girls in the lawn that did NOT jingle that when I went back out later I found one I had missed that DID jingle. Grateful  that we somehow have managed to teach our kids about the spirit of Christmas and it was palpable in our house on our special day.  Grateful that we took 8 hours to open gifts because we stopped and played with everything, took time to play, to snuggle, to eat, to love. Grateful that there was no ripping and tearing and not once did I hear "What else did I get?"

Santa had filled the stockings with goodies and ate all his cookies and milk.  Good Santa. He also left the house spotless. Perhaps he is more charitable and has a surplus of time when it isn't Christmas Eve.  (Something to keep in mind in the future parents.)

Mrs. Claus choose two lovely matching dresses for the girls (as requested) and hung them in garment bags fashioned out of wrapping paper.

But the grandest of grand gifts:  The Dollhouse.  Requested by Ella and decided by Santa to be given to BOTH girls.  Funny, Santa can get away with that sort of thing.

A kit for Ella to design her own fairy by tracing on vellum paper each part of the fairy using beautiful metallic colored pencils.

Since Maya doesn't care too much about toys and would rather do things that we do, all the gifts we got for her were to allow her to participate in regular activities and/or develop her motor skills.  She got this cool beading kit...

 her own pouring pitcher with child-sized tumblers.,

building logs and her own mini clothes basket and drying rack complete with tiny clothespins.

There was lots of time to snuggle, which was good because Ella was  bit under the weather, and no one was in a hurry (a rarity).  No one needed to get anything done, do any laundry, go to school, go to work, make a phone call or run an errand.  So instead we watched "Miracle on 34th Street" and well...

we remembered how it all started, the journey it's been and just how utterly blessed we are.  And, truly, the gifts under the tree dimmed in comparison to the love and appreciation in our circle of four.