Happy Day After Christmas! I hope no matter what holiday you celebrate or how you celebrated that you had a wonderful day, filled with joy, love and laughter.

For me, I’ve realized that Christmas is twentybajillion times better with kids. They are SO excited about everything. We’ve made the celebration last even longer by incorporating Elf on the Shelf into our December. For those who don’t know Elf on the Shelf, he (or she) is a mischievous little elf that watches all your actions and reports to Santa daily on if you’ve been naughty or nice. Our elves got into so much trouble every day! In fact, the night before Christmas, they tee-peed the ENTIRE house with 2 rolls of toilet paper. Alas, they have flown back to the North Pole with Santa and will return next year.

This year’s Christmas was particularly special because cousin Alise has joined the family. She is growing like a champ, soon to overtake Lily. My sister-in-law, Cheriss, is an amazing Mom and we can’t wait for baby Alise too start walking so she can join in all the cousin fun.

Lily is wearing an outfit my Mom purchased for her (before Lily was even a twinkle in our eyes) over a decade ago. We start our holiday family time off with (not a surprise, given our family’s love of cooking and food), Christmas Eve dinner where I made a version of this lasagna and added  butternut squash and spinach. It totally worked.

After we had eaten, we took in a beautiful Christmas Eve service. My Dad was thrilled to have baby Alise (yes, that’s her sitting upright in my Mom’s lap up there; she is so wide awake and alert!). All three kids did great as we adults were reminded of the true reason for the season. For the kids, the concept is still a bit esoteric and very ‘opening presents-y’. We left out cookies, milk and of course, a treat for the reindeer and Jamisen hoped that his good behavior would push him over the edge for a gift-filled Christmas morning.

Santa left a note in return saying that he was unable to fit all the gifts down the chimney and may be back to deliver more. And then, this happened. And Jamisen’s little brain exploded with unicorns, puppies and glittery fairies because life  just does not get any better for a 3 year old than this:

Santa delivered quite a gift: a motorized scooter that Jamisen is so very excited about. I’ll be purchasing him a helmet to go along with that scooter if it ever goes outside.

Lily was not so sure about this Santa with the beard. Jamisen was catatonic in joy, wonder and anticipation. Alas, Santa had a few more houses to go to and was not able to stay for lunch (though he was invited).

Wishing you a loving, fun-filled holiday season week as we ponder the upcoming year and look back at the current year with a mixture of thankfulness, wistfulness and joy. Here’s a fantastic 2015 for us all!