Christmas Day

Christmas is strange without children.

We actually had our celebration and visit from Santa on December 11, since all of the kids (except Conor, of course, whose parents are sticking it out so far) all went to spend the holiday with their other parent. We've enjoyed pleasant, stress-free days the last week and a half, filled with music and baking and friends, while everyone else counted down the shopping days.

Christmas morning didn't really feel Christmas-y, without children clamoring outside the door for us to wake up and take them downstairs. I watched several Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas specials, which helped the mood, but it wasn't until later that day that things really got festive.

A family in our ward invited us to spend Christmas evening and dinner with them. We had such a fun time being with a family, helping in the kitchen, serving children's plates, cracking jokes, and eating some juicy turkey with all the trimmings. Then they had their family present opening, and lo, and behold, there were presents for US under the tree! Each of the grown children's families had brought us gifts! We were flabbergasted! We really felt like part of the group. And I was touched to look around the room and see the others included in the group: the husband and wife (who invited us originally), her five grown children and their families, her aging father, and even her ex-husband (who is father to several of the kids), and the girlfriends of the two unmarried children. And us. Definitely the Spirit of Christmas.

We missed our own little ones, for sure, but got to talk to everyone on the phone, along with siblings, parents, grandparents, and friends. Hope your holiday was warm and cozy too. I wish we could have ALL been together. All of us.