What Do You See?

Hello all, I hope you had a wonderful holiday, whatever you celebrated! Sorry to have been away longer than just the weekend but I needed a break. Not that I needed a break or wanted a break from writing my blog, I look forward to sitting down and telling a story or sharing a crafty idea, but I needed to recharge my battery.

The holidays are a wonderful time and I so enjoy celebrating them with my family, but by Christmas night I was exhausted. I even fell asleep after Christmas dinner. The only reason I woke up was because my family started taking decorations off the tree and decorating me. They were laughing and woke me up. Obviously taking pictures too, otherwise I could have slept on that couch until Monday morning!

The night before, I slept over my brother Joey's house, sharing the absolute joy and magic of watching his kids, Robert, Jojo and Bella, wake up Christmas morning after Santa came to visit. That's my favorite part of Christmas and over the years I've been lucky enough to have shared those special mornings with some of my other nieces and nephews when they were the young ones in the family.

Bella woke us up at 2:30 am, seeing that Santa had already been there. As sleepy as she was, she just wanted to wake everyone up and dive into those presents. Her dad told her to go back to bed, that it was way too early, and I crawled in bed with her. She was out cold in about a minute, but oh how beautiful her face looked seconds before she fell asleep, she was just filled with wonder, her face was absolutely glowing.

Christmas morning was madness times three! The kids were so happy and there is just nothing better than watching them in the moment. Then of course they bring your head down when they say, and they always do, "that's it?".

That's it!?!

I understand. I was that way too when I was a kid. You get yourself in a frenzy unwrapping and it's an addiction, you just want more and more, not even enjoying or really looking closely at one of the gifts you just opened, moving to the next box to open, and the next. Then after the unwrapping madness, you open every toy and gadget, pull pieces out of the boxes, throw instructions all over, can't figure out how to work something and move to the next toy or gadget to pull apart. It's a process. Normal. But madness all the same!

Then we headed to my cousin's house for Christmas dinner and more presents! Pure magic and I love it but it wears me out.

Today I finally feel back to normal. I can actually think. Function. I still forget where things are, what I was doing, trip going up the stairs, ask myself why did I walk into the kitchen, etc., but for me that is normal!

The first picture above is my nephew Robert in one of his Christmas gifts. I saw him open the present on Christmas morning, saw him in the shirt all day and never thought it was anything but a cool design on a shirt. Maybe I was just too tired.

But it's not just squiggly lines and shapes. Maybe you saw it right away but I needed it pointed out to me. Again, by Christmas day I was in a fog, so tired, so full, content. I tried to avoid sitting on that couch. I knew I would fall asleep and I avoided it all day, sat on a hardback chair or stood but after dinner it was empty and looked so inviting, I just had to sit and rest my eyes for a moment.

Okay, so my moment was an hour!

During that little nap of mine, my nieces, Gracie and Bella, wrote up and then handed out report cards to everyone who was there. I got a Sleepy. I wonder where they got that?! Aunt Tracey got a Good; Aunt Janet Careing (and I know I spelled "caring" wrong, but these days that's what they teach them in school, write what you hear, we'll worry about how to spell it correctly later); Uncle Dennis to Bella and dad to Gracie got a Silly; Aunt Chrissy (Gracie's mom) got a Good Cooking [and she most certainly deserved that!]; Gracie's grandma, her dad's mom, got a Nice; my brother Bob got an Uncle Boob the Tong [tongue] Sticker Terrible Behavior; Joey, uncle to Gracie, dad to Bella, got a Good Being You; their big cousin Jess got a Joyful; Gracies grandparents, her mom's parents and Bella's Great Aunt Libby and Great Uncle Richie got Loving and Peaceful, respectfully. But the best one, I think, was for my cousin Doug, uncle to Gracie and Bella as well as Bella's godfather. Doug got a Cool and a PS Love Your Baldness! Bella was rubbing his head all night!

With all their presents to play with, their dolls, video games and movies, the girls spent their time making report cards for their family, how special is that. They are already leaning to give back, that's what I see!

So what do you see? Hopefully a family enjoying being together for the holidays and always. How lucky am I?


And what do you see in the picture of my nephew above? Just squiggly lines like me?

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Or did you see Michael Jordan? Now I can't see anything but Michael Jordan when looking at the shirt and think maybe you all will see it right away.

In any case, it was a gift that my nephew loved and made him happy. Just a small piece of the magic of my Christmas.

Until tomorrow...