Christmas

I wrote this statement earlier: The smiles say it all. It was a wonderful, wonderful Christmas. And if I am really honest. It was a wonderful Christmas but a tough season and these smiley faces and packages on tell part of the story and how I tried to help compensate for sorrow with two days focused on nothing but joy.

We walk aside people that are in the depth of the tough stuff of lives. And that puts us there with them, sometimes by choice and other times because we are family with no true DNA tie. This Christmas was tough for Max and I to celebrate since time feels measured and unsure for many that we love. But at the same time, we're holding ourselves to the responsibility of learning from their journeys because we see each of them living in the MOMENT. As Craig recently told me, "My only commodity is time."  (If you're not reading his blog, you could learn a lot from him at his blog.)

I can't pretend not to have planned moments (or even opportunities to capture my babies in this tiny, fleeting space called childhood with my camera) but I can honestly say that the experience of seeing our dearest in crisis has taught us to refine and live for today. If there are gifts in these struggles, I hope we have found at least this one. So on to the moments that we will forever treasure.

The kids held out until 6:30 am. We carried on the Stevens family tradition of making the kids wait on the steps while we made the coffee and got things situated. To make the build up even more climactic, they are released to move down step-by-step until they hit the motherload.

The kids were especially cute in their Christmas jammies from Nami (an annual tradition from my youth.) Here Max finds out what his gift was from us, a paddle board. 

Ryan did his own shopping this year and fully embraced the joy of carefully picking gifts for others. He got Elise a barbie and looked on with such excitement as she opened. He never even realized that she didn't shop for him! (That will come in future years.)

Ryan's wish list was fulfilled with MSU and Under Armor gear, as well as a Kayak for the cottage. 

Elise loved her new Ironman mask and t-ball batting gloves as well as some beloved stuffies. By mid-morning she had zoned out staring at the fire, cozy warm in her new MSU shirt.

Family snuggles. The real gift of Christmas.

These pictures are obnoxious in that they seem like they are showing off "stuff." There's truth in that. I just think of years to come and how hard it will be to mark what the kid's interests were when they were specifically 3 and 7. I'm hoping this will help.

It was the strangest Christmas weather ever. We were remembering years before when we nearly had to skip the 7 mile drive to my parents due to ice and snow for Christmas Eve. This year was snowless and Elise was able to tool around on her new bike. Ryan got to shoot hoops all decked out in his new sporty gear. It felt like we were back in California again!

We always host Christmas Day dinner and get to see my parents and Kir and Eric. Our friends, Matt and Stacey also joined our celebration and we hung out until 1am, eating, having cocktails and laughing. It was those moments that made the Spirit of Christmas come alive for me. We are so abundantly blessed.