A Merry Christmas

Christmas with a baby is what it should be. Those around her are envigorated and enlightened. It is like those much anticipated magic mornings we all had years ago, understanding the wonder and beauty of it all through a little one's eyes. While Samara was not really interested in Santa, or what he brought her, she did love the gathering of everyone, the endless piles of tissue and ribbon, the laugh-out-loud stuffed animals, the candles and cuddling, the music at church and at home. Our Christmas was divided into five parts. Around 5:30 we awoke to our own at home. With just the Christmas tree lights on, Steve and I opened the couple of gifts we got each other, very surprised that our baby was still asleep. Around 6:30 she awoke and we raced to see that first sleepy smile and bring her with us into the living room. She unwrapped a couple of small gifts but fell in love with the sparkly wrapping paper and was as content as could be. Around 8:30 we headed to the Hare, Henderson and Hernandez folk just around the corner. We had a lovely breakfast, listened to the Queen's speech and exchanged gifts, this year, Secret Santa style. It was great, if also very heart-wrenching at times. Not having Nana and Papa with us, not having them ring, not seeing their thoughtful and endearingly predictable gifts under the tree was very hard, especially for my father. I wonder if it ever gets any easier... Around midday we drove the 45 minutes or so to Steve's Nana's nursing home. She had only met Samara once before, so it was lovely to see them together again, and as you imagine, all of the other residents were overjoyed to have a baby in the house. She was holding up ok, although we aren't sure if she recognized us this time, but she was less emotional than in recent weeks. We were grateful for that time with her. After that we drove to Peabody and enjoyed a wonderful afternoon with all of Steve's side of the family. Samara was again spoiled rotten, but so well behaved, laughing all through Christmas lunch. For the evening, we returned to Marblehead and had a lovely dinner and celebration with all of the family, once again. Samara stayed up until 10:30pm, just as she had the nights before, and it's safe to say her schedule we worked hard to achieve was thrown out the window! While we are now dealing with the ramifications of this tiredness and chaos, I am glad that we can be flexible with her and that she is so dear as to put up with us all. She was rarely not passed around and bombarded by at least 12 other people this week and she has been very cheerful and truly a Christmas angel. We are so lucky. It is December 29th today, 4 years since the day we met on a perfect blind date, 3 years since Steve proposed at the lighthouse that winter's morning. Tonight we will celebrate all over again!