Things I want to remember about Christmas

Adam and I went on our annual Christmas Eve shopping trip.  We saw Sheri Dew!

On Christmas Eve, Adam constructed a new cover for the vinyl record Mark was getting as a present.  The original one had offensive cover art.  The new one was made out of a frozen pizza box.  (It fit perfectly.)

Adam gifted the family with the last Christmas bear.  Her name is Joy.

We talked about some of our favorite bears and how they made their appearances.  Most of the bears reflect something that happened that year and taken as a whole, they do represent a lot of joy.  They are a weird scrapbook of our family and remind us of trips we took or people we love or the year the Snohomish Valley completely flooded (that was the year Noah joined the family).

Some of us (not Mark who is always stoic) got a little teary because we're grateful for each other and our shared history.

It is tricky having grown up children.  You want them to be excited about their Christmas gifts but they aren't that exciting (although both boys did get Lego sets).  Braeden's favorite gift was a book called Upswing so I guess he is a grown up after all.  Adam got the same book.  It's just the kind of political, big idea, history book they both like.  

Emma cried when she opened the t-shirt quilt I had commissioned Desi to make for her.  It's beautiful for one thing and for another thing, it is a snapshot of things that mattered to Emma when she was growing up.  Also, it was a big surprise.

Santa Claus led Emma on an obstacle course.  There was a piece of string by her stocking.  She followed it through the kitchen, through the garage, out the side door, around to the front of the house and through the front door.  Her gift, a digital piano, was in the room with our piano.

She wrote a song on it with different instruments and layers of sound.  It is a gift that will come back to me many fold.

Braeden had a cold and felt kind of lousy but in typical Braeden fashion, he kept rallying and smiling and exuding cheer like he does.

It is a pleasure to have Braeden and Anna staying with us.  They are super helpful and Anna took one of my books off the shelf to read.  She asked if that was OK.  I said of course.  Also, I told her it felt like a compliment.

Since my love language is gifts, I was happy to note that everyone seemed to like their gifts.  A few years ago, Mark got some duds for Christmas and I've been trying to recover ever since.  I think this year I was more on track.  Mostly though, I think he was really happy to have his siblings here.

I know I was.