our christmas

hope your christmas was lovely. ours was relatively quiet and simple, which is how i like it. it was fun this year because wins is now old enough to start understanding/doing some traditions-like leaving out cookies and milk for santa claus. i didn't really do this growing up and j did, so it was pretty new for me, too. definitely a keeper.

w decided he wanted to leave them on the piano bench.

after having read "the night before christmas". also one of j's traditions we're adopting. not the most flattering photo, i know.

even when you know what's in most of the presents, christmas eve/morning is still exciting and mysterious and gives me that butterfly feeling in my stomach.

guess what w headed straight for first? his gigi loves this kid.

helping dad.

documentation that yes, i was there. with a pretty rocking gift.

cheeseball. santa brought him this but he maybe should have brought two...one for w and one for his dad. guess who's just as excited about it as w?

stockings.

getting the remote-control car out, which was screwed to the box (and when i say screwed to it, i mean for reals. with screws. really toys 'r' us? is that necessary?).

poppy got a few christmas gifts too.

santa left wins a little note. never knew santa's cursive was so good.

after the morning frenzy was over, we visited baby c and left her a wreath from us (the green one) and one from j's mom (the pink) which she made herself.

i know j looks nice and i don't. it's because we were heading to church afterwards but were going to stop at j's mom's house first and i didn't want to wear and wrinkle my skirt before we got to church.

our christmas was full of family. just the way i like it. while mostly sweet, there was some bitter too, without my little girl. i suppose the ache will eventually lessen and things will feel more normal without her-which is maybe odd to say because we didn't have her for that long, but every holiday feels like it's missing something. i don't know how else to explain it except to say that she truly is a member of our family and the proof is that somehow, it feels like we lost someone whom we had years with, rather than just days. maybe i'm not making any sense. but then maybe i'm not supposed to. the things swirling around in my head certainly don't. i guess what i'm saying is that i miss caroline. she's a part of me. my life goes on, which is good, but she's always there.

anyways, our christmas really was good. hope yours was too.