goodbye, christmas

The holiday cards are gone and in their place is a stack of thank-you notes ready to be written. We all have a lot to be thankful for this year and I'm afraid the 5x7 cards won't be able to properly fit all of our gratitude.

Ethan's first Christmas was a success and this has been made apparent by how soundly he's been sleeping in after days filled with family, friends and boundless love. A few times today I've stood in the doorway of Ethan's playroom and stared down the piles of boxes, books, toys and clothes with the notion that I would find a place for everything...and each time I just closed the door and slowly backed out of the doorway. Can I blame my intimidation by the piles of Ethan's new presents on still being wiped out from copious amounts of cooking, baking and cleaning? (And most importantly, how long can I run with that excuse?!)

Despite the fact it was an 85 degree Christmas here in Southeast Florida, it was still a perfect Christmas. Santa came yesterday and after opening Ethan's goodies from the North Pole, we began the clean-up process by feeding the remnants of our vegetable platter to the cows that Ethan loves to visit who reside in a nearby field. We spent half of the day with my parents and sister having a more intimate Christmas get-together at their house before making our way to my father-in-law's house for dinner. (Ethan passed out before dinner even began.)

Part of me is a little sad the holiday has come and gone so quickly but it's also been wonderful to watch all of the children playing outside with their new Santa gifts. This morning it looked like a parade of wagons, tricycles, bicycles, scooters, baseball mitts and sports equipment around our neighborhood and as I pushed Ethan around on his new 3-in-1 Trike, it was pretty awesome to be a part of the "parade" rather than an outsider. Children make every day more magical than you could ever imagine, but especially the holidays.