christmas eve

Shhh. Do you hear that? That is the sound of me taking a very deep breath and sighing. This day, the longest day of the year, is coming to an end. The kids are winding down with cookie decorating. The pullah is done. The other cookies are done. The knitting is {mostly} done. I am ready to watch White Christmas with the kids and finish up the knitting.

Watching Samuel and Eva as they cut out cookies and talk happily to one another about which cookies to leave out for Santa, I find myself wondering, albeit briefly, if maybe I imagined the intensity that filled the house earlier. The hippety hops were brought out and there was jousting and hopping and falling and bumping and tossing and laughing and crying and shouting and laughing and hilarity and madness. It seems inexplicable that all of that has melted away. Ha. I was here, though, so I know I am not imagining it. And I am not imagining the peace that has taken hold, at least for the moment, now. One, then the other. Both sides. All in a day- the day- before Christmas.



Eva making cookies on Christmas Eve.