This Christmas Reese got it. She understood the whole Santa thing, and her excitement was contagious. For Andrew and I, Christmas is once again as exciting as it was when we were kids. We bounced out of bed when we heard the faint knock at our door at 7 AM on Christmas morning.

When I was little my dad would always go downstairs before all of us kids, to “turn on the tree.” I suspect he was doing other things as well (making coffee probably, since it was literally ass crack in the morning) because waiting for him to give us the “ok” to come down always seemed to take an eternity.

This year, I sat on our couch waiting for Reese to come down.

We got Reese a bike, goggles, a Frozen snow globe (random, but she wanted it), an outfit, coloring books, paints, fashion plates, and pajamas. She got countless other gifts from family;  a new coat, shoes, a playhouse, books, clothes, dress-up outfits, etc.

James got a car, a toy tool set, truck books, clothes, coloring books, Legos, and toy trucks.

Christmas Eve was church in the evening, then dinner at our house with grandparents. Christmas morning was opening presents, eating quiche and cinnamon rolls, and riding new bikes in the church parking lot across from our house. Just the four of us.

Then it was on to Christmas Day celebrations with grandparents, aunts and uncles, and cousins.

Here was our Christmas.