Richard and I have a tradition of staying up late on Christmas Eve. We hang out in the kitchen, have a couple of drinks, make some cookies and Christmas treats and just enjoy each others company. We usually have spent so much of the past three or four weeks running with the kids, adjusting to his after school soccer practice, buying Christmas presents, and other asundry chores that we really enjoy the time to catch up with each other and feel like two people reconnecting after a long time apart (sort of odd since we sleep in the same bed each night, right?). Tonight was no exception - we read Christmas Eve stories with the kids (we are very excited - Mason read most of "The Night Before Christmas" by himself tonight), put the kids in their new Christmas pajamas, popped open a few beers and started making our chocolate balls.
In the middle of washing dishes, laughing with Richard about whatever it was he was telling me, and watching him patiently rolling coconut balls in melted chocolate, I glanced out the kitchen window and saw cars driving by (our neighborhood is "the lighted one" in town.) I realized some of the people in those cars were looking through our kitchen window and witnessing a "Norman Rockwall" moment in the making. What was even more astonishing to me was the realization that, for the most part, they were right. We are two people very much in love with each other and with the idea of spending the next fifty years drinking a few beers and making some candy on Christmas Eve - with each other. We have three of the most beautiful children (in our humble opinions) sleeping soundly in their beds waiting for the moment they can jump out of their beds and see what Santa has brought - which of course will be exactly what they wanted. We just left a loud Christmas get together at my mom's house which follows a great weekend with Richard's family. Friends and family are coming over tomorrow to play and hang out. We are truly blessed - and grateful!! Merry Christmas from the Meisels!!
