Corona Virus Quarantine Day #253: The Magic of Christmas: November 30, 2020:

The Christmas decor has been up in our house for weeks. The lights are turned on every night and sometimes the kids come down and plug in the tree before breakfast. Esmerelda, our elf, arrived the day after Thanksgiving and the kids are coloring Christmas pictures every night.

We listen to Christmas music in the car and in the barn and I sing louder than anyone. I do love a good Christmas song. Fletcher always requests Straight No Chaser’s “Grinch” song, Ellen prefers their “Twelve Days of Christmas,” Fiona’s likes their “Christmas Can-Can,” Finley doesn’t have a strong opinion but likes Barbara Streisand’s “Jingle Bells” because I always tell him how much he loved it as a kid and Cooper just wants to listen to Garth Brooks (and lately Billy Joel).

We have drawn names for presents and the kids conned us into letting them buy presents for 2 of their siblings rather than one. Cooper, however, is insistent that he will buy for all of them anyways. We have also gotten our Christmas lists written for Santa.

*We are all very excited about shopping for each other. I love how much they love to give gifts, it’s really pretty sweet. Now…we have to find the time to get it done!*

The present making frenzy has also began. A lot of cardboard has been cut and used to make games and the creativity abounds. They get their creativity from their daddy and their Grandpa Joe…cause they sure didn’t get it from me! Canvases have been painted and they all have Christmas bags full of presents/treasures for Bryan and me, Gaga and their siblings.

Good LORD I love Christmas, I always have. I’m grateful that I had parents who made it such a special and happy time in my life. I have so many great memories of our house decor, the lights my dad always put on our house, trees and bushes and the amazing Christmas Eve party my mom always threw and of course midnight mass (I loved it as a kid, now as an adult…we haven’t braved that experience yet…we go to 4pm mass instead, seems more practical).

I am not unaware of the fact that many people don’t grow up in a house like I did or our children are and they don’t have this kind of joy associated with the holidays. That has always made me sad. This is something we try to stress to our kids a lot, that they shouldn’t take any of this for granted…not everyone is so lucky.

Tonight, as we watched the new Grinch movie and Fletcher sat next to our elf, Esmerelda, checking on her, making sure she could see the screen (don’t worry she was in her homemade elf house so that we could safely move her around the house without touching her) and asking her if she liked the movie, I felt very emotional. I never want to forget moments like this one and all the fun we have in our house during this time of year.

I’m certain this Christmas will be slightly different with all things Covid, for one, we won’t be able to host our annual Christmas Eve dinner (last year we had 40 people) with family and friends. But…regardless of that…we will have the magic and I’m so incredibly grateful for that!