Dear Christmas

I think we all get to an age where Christmas begins to lose it's magic, for me I remember it being when I first moved out of my parents house. The first Christmas I was in my own place, I worked A LOT! My dear friend Jules and I would work all day, then go to my apartment and eat warm peanut butter rice crispy treats and play Tetris on my Super Nintendo. We did this for almost 2 weeks straight during Christmas break from college. It was fun, some of my best memories from college, but not quite the same celebration as when I was with my family.

When I first married Dustin, our first Christmas together was great. We were newlyweds and loved spending our first holiday season together. I knew it would only get better with time. The year following that Christmas, we spent with my parents in Utah. I still had fun but was really beginning to notice that something was missing. Still, I knew it would only get better. The next Christmas, our sweet miniture Ry was with us. She was only 4 months old, and I felt a glimmer of Christmas in my heart, knowing that as the years went on, Christmases were, still, only going to get better. Two years later, we had our sweet newborn Kendall with us. There is something so wonderful about being able to hold your new baby at Christmas time. I felt a minuscule amount of what Mary felt as she held baby Jesus. It was magic. Holding a newborn, snuggling her surrounded by Christmas lights. I still knew it was only going to get better. Last year we had a 2 year old and a 4 year old. there were presents to be opened, candy to eat, and new toys to be played with. The door to Christmas in my heart and mind had been blown wide open.  I was so excited when I went to bed, I could hardly sleep. I wondered (with my girls of course) where Santa was and when he would be coming to our house. I couldn't wait to spend the next day with my family. We were expecting our third child, and this was the first Christmas I can think of in the the last 7 years where I felt like we were having our first family Christmas. Only, neither mine or Dustin's parents were with us. It was only him and I and our babies. Our family, our Christmas.

This year, with our 3 children and our family being complete, all together all under one roof Christmas was amazing. We celebrated one day early because Dustin had to work on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. One thing I have tried to do every year is to remember traditions. This year, I didn't have to remember them, they just happened. We looked at lights. We danced in the Smith's house with their huge singing Santa Claus and singing snowmen. We jumped over the flashing rope lights on their lawn and checked out their decorations. We left ice cream for Santa and vegetables for Rudolph. We wrote him a letter and he wrote one back to us. Even some fuzzy hair from his beard wound up in the ice cream bowl. It settles my heart to know that I was right, Christmas has gotten better every year. I can only wonder, what does the next Christmas have in store for us?

Love,
one happy family