Our First Christmas

The next morning, when Molly woke up, I jumped out of bed and ran to turn on the lights on our Christmas tree.   I went back to Molly and told her that Santa had visited during the night, and he left her some presents.  She sleepily walked out to the living room, and the first thing she saw was her new trike.

And she knew exactly what to do with it too:

After a while, I took her stocking down from the fireplace, and she 'oohed and ahhed' at the treats inside.

She found a set of five hair bands, which she just HAD to wear all at once.  She's pretty good at putting them in her hair by herself!

Then she helped herself to opening the presents under the tree.  She had learned how much fun it is when we were in Kelowna, so didn't hesitate.

I interrupted her by getting her dressed, as our friend Hilary was coming over, and I wanted to hold off with the gift opening until she arrived.  Hilary was soon there, and helped Molly open gifts while I prepared breakfast.

We had a really nice morning, visiting with Hilary, opening gifts, and eating breakfast together.  Hilary soon carried on to her next commitment, so Molly and I had a few hours in the afternoon to visit with our friend Lori and her family.  As they have a family of two teenage boys, we got there just in time for the boys to get out of bed and start opening their gifts!

Lori and Molly played and sang some Christmas carols together.

Eventually, we had to get home to put the turkey in the oven and get Molly down for a nap, because Uncle Ron was coming over for Christmas dinner.

Molly played for a while with her new toys, then we popped some Christmas crackers and dug into our turkey dinner.

I had many reasons to pause throughout the day and just feel happiness for all I have, and for the love of my daughter, family and friends.  I felt lucky, grateful, and joyful this Christmas.