Christmas Vacation

While today was not without its more mundane moments, (there were still dishes to do, laundry to fold, diapers to change and messes to clean up) it was also one of those days that I know I will remember when my children are grown and gone. 

 It snowed last night and all day too.  The kids played together in the snow and I held my baby and stood watching at the window for a long time.  I loved seeing Jacob, 14, roll around in the snow and help the little girls build their snow forts.  I loved seeing Nathan, 12, building his fort with his talented artistic eye.  I loved watching Sophia trudging through snow past her knees and looking up into the sky with her mouth open.  When she wasn't catching flakes on her tongue she was scooping the white stuff into her mouth with her hands.  I loved watching Olivia, 10, and Emily, 6, scoop up armfuls of snow to build their forts, throw snowballs at each other, and of course at their big brothers, and dive over the giant piles of snow that the snowplow made next to our yard.  I watched gratefully, as Benjamin, 17, shovelled our driveway and sidewalk.  I'm sure there will be more to shovel in the morning, but the task won't be near so daunting because of his hard work today.

We drank warm apple juice spiced with cinnamon sticks and cloves with our lunch, then decided to make Christmas sugar cookies.  The boys reminded me that we did not make them at all last year.  I was still in the nauseous stage of pregnancy and we didn't do much baking at all last Christmas.  In fact, we had hamburgers for Christmas dinner, cooked by DAD!!  That was much easier on me than putting on a big dinner. 

Sophia had a grand time frosting cookies…or should I say…cookie.  She only frosted one cookie.  Picture this.  Spread some frosting, add some sprinkles, take a bite.  Add some more frosting and sprinkles, then take another bite.  More frosting, more sprinkles…you get the picture. 

Christmas vacation also means lots of games at our house.  We love games but regular life gets so busy that we don't play them as often as we'd like.  We got out our junior version of Trivial Pursuit and Bananagrams today.  The boys played a game of Clue later this evening.  The next couple of weeks should bring lots more family game time.

The little ones are in bed now and we are anxiously watching the weather to see what Benjamin will be facing as he drives to the airport to pick up Jerry.  He's been on a business trip the last couple of days and will be home tonight.  Olivia asked if she could stay up to see him but I told her that it would be much too late.  "I will probably be asleep myself when he gets home," I told her, "But I will roll over in bed and give him a kiss when he comes in."  Olivia replied, "I wish I could be there to see THAT!"

Not every day can be as lovely as today, but it's days like this that make me want to shout to the world, "I LOVE BEING A MOTHER!!"