Christmas was very different this year.† The snow changed plans.† We were snowed in.

We had our first Christmas in this houseÖKei and I had our first Christmas in this houseÖîIî have many Christmasís here.

As I lay in bed, and thought back to the last Christmas that I spent surrounded by these walls many years ago; I wondered what that girl thought of?† Did she have dreams and plans?† Did she have any idea of where life would take her?† Did she know she would marry a man she loved, only to divorce him a few years later?† Did she ever imagine she would live in a city with a huge golden bridge?† Work for an Award winning company?† Have the most beautiful child in the world?† Life is funny; full of twists and turns at every corner.† Mistakes have to be made, choices, decisions.† All roads lead to here.

To this moment, laying beside a wiggly, giggly 10 year old who cannot wait to wake up and see what Christmas brought her.† Who could not wait to watch her puppyís first Christmas.† Back to this house, this moment, this life.

We had a white Christmas!† WE had a white Christmas.† To my dear friends who spend the winter with snow on the ground, you may not understand the HUGENESS of this event to these Alabama girls.† Kei woke me up with, ìWe have† a white Christmasî and I jumped up and looked out the window.† It was beautiful.

She took the dog out for a bit and he loved his first taste of snow.

We have a ritual every Christmas.† I canít function without a bath; she canít possibly wait to open at least something.† So she opens her stocking while I take my bath.† She sits on the floor in the bathroom and pulls out things one by one.† She oohs and aahs over everything.† There was lipstick and candy and books and earrings and a necklace and bottle caps and an iTunes gift card and puzzles and more.

We read the last day of our Jesse Tree and put the last ornament on the tree.† We loved this so much and fully intend to make this an annual tradition.

We loved this so much that we visited the site that was talked about in our Jesse Tree book and found a little girl we wanted to ‘adopt’.† Kei and I don’t have a lot of extra money.† We discussed it and decided we would do without some things in order to do this.† Her name is Neeta, she is from India and she is 8 years old.† She is the daughter of a single Mother.† We can† not wait to get the information about her.

Then the gift unwrapping began.† She got me some great house shoes which I live in during winter, candles, some bubble bath, bath spray and KEIpons. Which are great coupons with things like “Good for taking Nomad out 6 times” or “One dinner, I cook”.† All of my favorite things.

She opened and opened gifts.† I know her so well, she is so easy to buy for because she loves everything!† There was felt and yarn and more clay and an Edward Scissorhands shirt and boots and science kits and games and Webkinz and more.† She was delighted with everything.

Then we got Nomad to ‘open’ his gifts.† He was hysterical!

There was a calm and a peace of knowing that we had no where to be, nothing that HAD to be done.† We made a huge breakfast, we ate snacks all day, I played an online game with my best friend who lives in Cali, she played Webkinz, we played Phase 10, we watched Gilmore Girls.† We laughed and danced and played with Nomad.† It was a lovely Christmas.

Today there was snow playing; although it was MUCH colder than yesterday.† There was more game playing and watching TV and laughing.

We quickly found out that we didn’t love the freezing weather….Nomad was a different story.† We had to fight him to bring him in!

This has been a wonderful Christmas weekend.† We are so blessed.† I hope your holiday was magical and special and a blessing to you and your family.

The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree:† the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other.† ~Burton Hillis