White Christmas

We had a magical snow globe Christmas.   A small, cozy world, glowing from within, surrounded by soft white wonder, filled with carols, cuddles, candy and cuteness.

Christmas Eve, we spent the day getting ready for a visit from St. Nick and prepping for Christmas Eve services at church.  We made sure our halls were properly decked, baked a batch of Daddy approved cookies for Santa, said a farewell to our beloved elf on the shelf, Maurice and in the afternoon headed off to church (for Mark he wouldn’t return back home until nearly midnight). 

Ben performed a special liturgical dance (using that term loosely) and sang Away in Manger with sign language for the prelude at the Children’s Bell Service.  His first song choice for the dance had been The Doors classic, Hello, I Love You,…but we managed to steer him in the direction of Angels We Have Heard on High. Clara knew all the words to her song and loved to practice, but informed us with no room for persuasion that she “only sings songs at home.”  Ben more than made up for Watson Christmas Eve service representation.  What Clara lacked in performance, she made up in style, that baby girl can be breathtakingly cute.

Christmas morning brought the start of the enchanted snow storm, our traditional hallway filled with balloons and Misty's cinnamon rolls, a day spent entirely in pajamas, a windfall of thoughtful and fun gifts from so many people, two kids giddy with their treasure trove of new riches, naptime for all, Toy Story 3 with popcorn and hot chocolate and a Christmas day that will forever be the one to beat.  We were a family of four cocooned contently together, but feeling connected and loved by far away family and friends.

Sunday we made it to church along with a handful of adventurous fellow Presbyterians and had a rag tag service of joy and snow-on-our-boots celebration.   This Christmas weekend was magic, a contained snow globe of memories to cherish.  But just like the ornaments on our tree make their journey back to the attic, this sparkling treasure of moments lodges itself in our heart and we return to the reality of cabin fever, sugar and excitement detox, squabbles over new toys and crankiness from all of us ready to return to a schedule…but a little sparkle is still stuck to our slippers.