Christmas Eve Thoughts

Every year, we attempt to take a picture in our holiday best in front of the tree. Key word: attempt

The ladies, including the dog of course.

Required Christmas PJ pic in front of the tree. All verrryyy tired

I have escaped away for a few quiet minutes in my room, lit by candles and twinkling lights. Christmas is tomorrow. That's a phrase that is still can't swallow. I feel like this year especially the season has gone by far too quickly. It slipped through the cracks of this crazy life and I don't want it to end yet. Didn't we just get started?

This past week has been quite the whirlwind. Finals, packing, Christmas party prep, the actual party, a trip to see family, the flu, lots of shopping and wrapping... life is in full speed. It's exhausting and I want to drop in a dead sleep but I love each moment. I am home. I am with my people.

And now it is almost the big day. We went to Mass tonight, had our annual dinner at Red Lobster with my aunts and uncles and cousins, snapped a few family pictures in our holiday attire, unwrapped a gift, and will soon settle in for a holiday movie and cookies before reading The Night Before Christmas and lulling into sleep, all three of us kids (plus three pets) stuffed into my room.

While time goes by quickly, joy is rich and abundant. Colorful Christmas lights peek through my blinds from the outside. Kids are trying with all their might to go to sleep, with hopes of hearing reindeer on the roof. All are clad in new matching pajamas. Family members gather together in good spirits. Bellies are stuffed full of food. For a hot minute, the challenges of life are simply glossed over.

I think why I love Christmas so much is because of the happiness. The magic. When else does everyone feel that glee, that excitement, that love? Oh the love. It pours out. Of course I do wish that there was the magic all year long. But as I've grown up, I have recognized how beautiful it is to only feel it once a year. It makes it even more precious. And we have all this joy because of the birth of a baby. An innocent baby who would change everything, in the most spectacular of ways.

Merry Christmas Eve friends. Love to you all.

xo
Hannah