Better to Give.....

IF this was our last Christmas as a family of four, it was pert near perfect. And of course, we'll always be a family of four, though in years future we may be scattered hither and yon. It was the best of the best and one I will never forget.

Church was a blessing and warmed my heart. Love singing traditional Christmas carols in the beautiful church - decked out with candles, trees, poinsettias, garland and friends all around. I scolded myself for not attending more regularly....and missed my mom - a lot. She would have so enjoyed going to services with us, I think - it's so beautiful to sing Silent Night lit only by candles. It's a very special night and we enjoyed it. We drove around looking at lights for a little bit and then watched The Santa Clause - and were pretty much 'done' by around midnight. Not bad. Though J. (bless his heart!) finished up a couple things this morning before we were all out of bed. We slept in until NINE!!

I think this is the Christmas that son #1 realized the joy of giving....of selecting things personally and spoiling someone just because it's Christmas. And the person he chose to really overwhelm with his gifts was his younger brother - thus making it all the more special. H. unwrapped a CD - which he thought was the CD he'd asked for. He was thrilled. It was from his brother and he was over-the-moon happy. A few moments later, he unwrapped another CD from his brother - and realized the first CD was a 'special edition' compilation disc of the band he wanted the CD from AND a bunch of other groups....and the second CD was the coveted CD. He was TOTALLY excited and so appreciative....and B. was so happy to have given those two CDs to H. 'cuz it was so obvious how much H. loved them.

And then, H. saw ANOTHER gift under the tree from B. to him - and one that was wrapped identically with only 'To B.' on it. So they unwrapped those together - and B. had purchased TWO double barrel rifle Nerf guns for them to blast each other with. It was so perfect - H. was so excited. They didn't 'have these kind of cool guns when we were little' - which both J. and I sort of laughed about 'cuz we're STILL (honest and true) finding assorted Nerf ammunition of all shapes and sizes throughout closets, dresser drawers, etc. But these 'new' Nerf weapons have the ability to shoot very quickly - and repeatedly - with less frequent human intervention than in the past.

B. discovered the joy of picking something out so perfect - and so improbable - and then getting one for himself, too - so they could 'play' together. It was perfect and so, so fun - absolutely perfect. H. was just stunned - but also so incredibly excited - to see two young men reliving their childhoods as adults was great. Even the part where they put the guns straight up and shoot at the ceiling. Our old house had blue circles on the ceiling from one 'battle' gone vertical.

It was perfect. And it warmed my heart to see that all the careful planning - and effort - and execution year after year is rubbing off on them. Both picked out great gifts for family members - and they did it all on their own. They both needed help with wrapping - don't ask me why but they are both totally inept at the wrapping part - but they shopped and selected all on their own. H. got me some PERFECT fuzzy socks to wear to bed - which I really needed AND wanted - perfect!

Santa spoiled us all and it was a great morning. J. is downloading the entire Beatles catalog from iTunes as I type. He wasn't sure he 'wanted' it - which translated to he DID want it but was having trouble rationalizing the purchase. So I made the decision for him and bought the iTunes gift card for the complete box set. He's a happy guy who's hogging our downloading bandwidth as he downloads 100's of songs into his computer iTune library. Small price to pay.....

Ham is simmering in ginger ale. Au gratin potatoes, green bean casserole, crescent rolls and berry pie will be consumed in a few hours. J. and I just had bacon, eggs and toast to give us some protein. The boys are living on stocking candy and cinnamon rolls, etc. Protein is highly overrated when you're a growing boy.....

The scavenger hunt was a huge success as well - and now one of them is shopping for a new cell phone (and quite possibly their very own cell phone plan - and paying their own bill from now on!!) and the other will be working on getting estimates for his souped up car stereo.

As for me, I've got new books, new movies (Eclipse!, Fantasia, Toy Story 3) and a GPS for geocoaching which I plan to put to good use hiking around our county looking for treasures. The kids seemed mildly interested - I told them it's like being able to have a scavenger hunt every day - or whenever - and I think when it's not raining (which it is now and will be for a few days), we'll head out to hike around and see what treasures we can find. Figured it was a good way to get J. and I up and moving more and if the boys feel like tagging along, all the better.

Even Chloe was spoiled rotten with lots of toys and her little tennis balls she loves to play with.

It's been a magical, fun day - the perfect Christmas - and it's not over yet. It's been a fantastic day and one we will always remember. This time next year, we may be Skyping with our oldest son vs. sitting down to dinner with him. And that's OK.

Hope your day was perfect and magical, too.....