Christmas Eve & Christmas Day with The Cousins!

It's quiet around here just now. Michael & Belinda have taken the kids to the park along with Grandpa Tony and Granny Moira.

Kate just woke up from a fairly short nap with a sweaty little head. Nicki was resting as well and they're both up ready to head for the park to see if we can find the rest of the family.

The past two days have been fun and hectic. Late Christmas Eve afternoon we went to Mass and it was standing room only even at that early time.

After Mass and dinner we started watching "It's A Wonderful Life". I love that movie more and more as I get older. Hard to believe it was not successful until years later, especially given that Jimmy Stewart starred in it...I remeber the first time I saw it--I was 25 years old and spending my first holiday season in Washington, DC. One of the bureau writers, Tim McNulty was holed up in the conference room watching this old black and white movie. I hadn't seen it until then and he encouraged me to watch.

I did, and it's begun a tradition for the past 20 years now to watch the movie at least once during the holiday season. We have the movie on DVD and it's going to be one of those movies that we'll pass along to Kate as we begin to form our own little family traditions.

We got to the point where George was about ready to jump off the bridge when everyone just faded and we stopped. Last night we finished the movie...it still gets to me, even after all the years of seeing it.

Christmas Day was a fairly early one, of course, with four little ones running around wondering what Father Christmas had left them.

I got to dole out the gifts in the morning and it was great fun to see the little ones go at it...opening the presents with the help of Uncle Andy, Granny Moira and the parents. It will be especially memorable since this is our first Christmas with Kate and though she doesn't know quite what it means, I'm sure she's made the connection that Christmas equals tons of good stuff for her! (including the stuffed rocking horse given to her by our good neighbors Kevin & Aren)....

What a great few days it has been even though it's hectic...it's been a real gift for all of us to be together and as I was driving back from an errand this morning I thought that though Christmas has become very commercial, at the core the whole notion of family coming together has really been the most important thing. Nicki has been pointing to these weeks for most of the year now especially since family is so far away. We wish that both sides of our families were much closer, though this is the path we've chosen.

So we take each moment we have together in these few short weeks (and shoot a ton of photos) and hold them tight and try to appreciate every minute we're together...until the next time.

To see a flash slide show from Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, please go here

To see an html slide show (best for dial-up) from Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, please go here