A Peaceful Christmas

Well, another Christmas has come and gone. It was pretty quiet this year. The kids are older and don’t make the trek to the tree in the dark wee hours of the morn anymore. In fact, they are probably just going to bed at that time.

Santa’s getting older too. The kids complained that he came too early this year because they could hear him shuffling around upstairs muttering to himself as he went about his mysterious business. They thought he should have waited until they went to sleep. Santa explained that he gets bagged by the Sandman long before the over-caffeinated whiners in question hit the hay.

It was a quiet morning anyway. We gathered round the little fiber-optic tree (no real one this year due to C’s delicate condition) and slowly opened gifts in rotation. There have been other Christmases with bigger trees, more colorfully wrapped packages stacked higher, more frenzy when little fingers tore into said wrapping, louder screams of delight, but I must say that I prefer the one we just had.

There was a sense of family and real appreciation for what we had. Both K and J wound up with lots of books. They also received gifts of CD’s lovingly prepared by those who knew how much music means to both of them. There were bits of technology passed along as well. J received a new hard drive for his computer to augment the one that he has completely filled (with music for the most part), and K unwrapped a slightly used keyboard to signify the pending receipt of the current family computer as soon as the bugs are worked out of the one that J and I just built. Oh, and let’s not forget about the creature comforts – socks to warm the feet. It doesn’t get much better than that.

As for me, the best thing was that we were able to have this time together once again.

Merry Christmas everyone, and Happy Hanukkah, Kwanza, Solstice, Ramadan, Tet, and Chinese New Year