My Christmas Resolution

Next Christmas we will not spend ANY part of December in a hospital.  I realize I may be jinxing myself here, but I've got an entire year to make up for that by knocking on wood and earning good kharma and finding a store online that still sells rabbit's feet.  Last December the babies were still in the NICU in Tupelo.  Every day would get a little closer to Christmas and I remember being more on edge than I have ever been.  I just wanted them home already!  We got our wish and they made it home just in time.  But they were still so tiny and it was so cold and we were kinda trapped in our house, exhausted, stressed over these new little birds in our house, and sad that we were kind of just skipping over Christmas.  This year things are different.  And while I hate that we will be spending two nights in a hospital yet again this December, I know that Christmas this year will feel like Christmas.  I really don't feel like Charlie will be too miserable in her cast.  She was the happiest baby in the last cast.  She's so tough.  Such a little fighter.  She'll figure out how to do anything she wants to within a week, tops. 

I'm excited about Christmas this year.  One of my sisters will be home.  We'll all gather with Joe's family and then my family and my kids will surely be spoiled rotten (as they deserve to be) and we'll eat, drink, and be merry. 

I called my dad the other morning and told him I really wanted to do the no gift Christmas thing this year.  Not that we cant afford to buy some small things for people.  Not that we don't want to.  But after two years in a row, spending time in hospitals, and all of us having these major life changes over the past year, wouldn't it be great just to have a day to stop, enjoy each other in the comfort of our pj's, and really take stock in whats important?  I don't mean to sound all Linus here, but if I do, there could be worse people to sound like.  Maybe it's having a family of my own now that has me all sentimental, but my true Christmas wish is just to spend time with Joe and I's family.  The laughter and the smiles and the warmth...thats the stuff that helps you ride all the way through the next year until Christmas comes around again.  It's how we get by.

All that being said, my dad was so excited and on board with the idea.  However, he informed me, he'd already picked up a little something for me.  But said it wasnt a Christmas present.  Just a thing he thought I'd like:

Say whaaaaaaat?!  My daddy loves me.  Did you know?  I knew.  I plan to use it in, oh, about 30 minutes.  Time to break it in!

In the meantime, please enjoy the ones you love, the ones that love you, the fact that it's December, the fact that you all RULE, and some favorite things...