Christmas Eve

It is Christmas Eve morning and the house is silent. The children are all still tucked in their beds, their dreams filled with reindeer and brightly wrapped gifts. I am looking out the window of my bedroom where the ground has been blanketed with several inches of fresh snow. The branches of the pine trees are heavy and sag under the weight of it all. More flakes are lazily drifting down from a gray sky. It looks like a postcard advertising a white Christmas. Absolutely beautiful.

Today will be filled with pastry creme and caramel, last minute wrapping, sledding, board games, excited children and maybe some cookie baking. This afternoon we will have a lovely dinner with good friends and then I am going to take the children for a drive to see the holiday lights. Tonight the children will go to bed in their new Christmas pajamas after opening just one gift. Calvin let me know this week that one of his gifts accidentally ripped a little bit (insert sheepish smile).

Tomorrow the children will come tearing the down the stairs to see what Santa brought these good little boys and girl. They have been so good. The separation has been very hard for each of them, but they strive to shoulder this new burden bravely. Each of them has grown and changed so much in the last six months. There have been many days of struggles and tears, but I believe they know that they are loved very, very much.

Tomorrow it will be familiar and comforting as they have come down these same stairs on Christmas morning for the last five years. This year, only their Mother will greet them, but I am hoping the thrill of the gifts will numb that reality for them. At noon, their Father will come to spend the afternoon with the kids, exchanging gifts and playing with the shiny new toys and I will go upstairs to my room to read or clean or maybe just take a nap. Christmas for children should be shiny and warm, loving and familiar, exciting and peaceful. I hope my children feel all of that tomorrow. I would like to take away their worries and fears for the future, bottle them up and set them aside, letting them concentrate only on the happiness of this season.

I hear little feet padding down the hall so I am off to start the day. If you don't mind, I am going to pop back on here throughout the day to share with blogland what is happening here in our little home. Christmas Eve is a time for family and for being together and since both of my families are far from from me this Christmas, I am going to share it with you. I hope you don't mind. Merry Christmas Eve.