It’s been such a great Christmas, and we’re still recovering over here.  I found myself taking so many mental photographs, wanting to freeze things just for a second.  I know these are the days, and I have a boy who gets more fun as the months pass.  Christmas really just puts into clearer focus what we know all year.  That little joys matter most.  That childhood should be savored, and family is where life really happens.

I watched cousins play on Christmas Eve in the same home I’ve spent every one of my Christmas Eves for the past thirty-one Christmases I have existed.

And I learned that Santa really isn’t any less magical when you know the whole story and are running the show for your own little family.

Christmas breakfast feels like perfection with any size crowd, big or small.

And both the best and worst part of all of it is that you wait another year for it all to happen again.  And for me, at this season of my life especially, I always wonder what exactly that will look like – next Christmas.  With growing children, aging relatives, and what feels like a persistently changing view, I really don’t know what Christmas of 2012 will feel like.  And that’s both thrilling and scary, like the unknown always is.

So the rest of this week will have me taking down the decorations, finding places for newly acquired gifts, and looking back on the year behind me.  I have so much to be grateful for.  And lots more good stuff around the corner, I know.  I feel full in the best way, but also in transition.  The end of the year always leaves me a little restless and achy like this.  Am I the only one?  There is so much to think about when you consider where you’ve come from and wonder what’s ahead.  I hope I’m ready.