Christmas

Today is Christmas Eve. Today and tomorrow are days we always anticipate around here. We watch Christmas movies. We decorate cookies for Santa. Tonight we will have dinner with Husband's family and, this year, we will open gifts with them. We will put the little ladies to bed and break out the tools. This year they will receive a kitchen set from Santa, so we will spend our evening assembling it for them. I know they will love it. Tomorrow we will open some gifts at home and then head off to see my family.

These are days I have been dreaming about for months. These are days where the pictures in my head of the happy family are clear. My expectations are high. We are all freshly washed and pressed. There are no runny noses. There is no whining. There are no temper tantrums. Heck, the dogs are even washed and groomed. All family members behave. There are no passive-aggressive remarks or rolled eyes. We are the picture perfect family of the Norman Rockwell paintings.

Then I wake up. There are toys scattered everywhere. The camera has been lost at one of the many Christmas festivities we have attended. Panda Girl has a cold and is a fountain of snot. Sweet Pea is exhausted from the pre-Christmas activities and is throwing tantrums like when she was two. I am exhausted from all the preparations that have been made over the last month. Husband even has to discipline Sweet Pea (if you know him, you realize he does not really discipline her until she is pushed way beyond decent behavior). While this is not what anyone would picture for Christmas Eve, it is my reality.

The rest of the day will be spent decorating Christmas cookies. We will get cleaned up. Panda Girl will have to put her clothes back on (she is currently running around in only her diaper - my favorite outfit on her). Then, late tonight, after all the festivities are complete, Husband and I will look around our home and sigh. It will be a sigh of happiness and gratefulness. We will smile at each other and wonder at this family we have created. We will be thank God for these beautiful babies we are so fortunate to call our own. We will drift off to a peaceful sleep and dream again of our perfect Christmas.