Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come

My future Christmas...next year...many years from now even....I would want every Christmas to be similar in that it would be spent with those I love.  Finding my kids incredibly happy to come home to spend time with their mom, and not dreading having to make the trip from wherever their lives have taken them.

Looking forward to seeing their cars pull into the driveway...future grandchildren even (lord help me, that's a long ways away!) jumping out of the car and practically tripping over one another to be the first one up to the door.  

Trays of chocolate mint cookies, buckeyes, and thin& crispy oatmeal cookies greeting them...appetites being spoiled...and yet, satisfied with food that only mom knows how to make this special time of year.

Yes, I have dreams of what Christmas will be like in the future.  But I think I'll be content in knowing my children are all happy right here and right now.  That even though lil' D is currently miserable with a cold, he's still racing from one new Christmas treasure to another.  That D-man is so happy to have constructed a brand new Lego invention, that he has recently announced "I am better than Ben Franklin!"  And that the princess can't stop looking in the mirror and admiring her newly pierced ears that were part of her Christmas gift.  They're happy.  They're playing together.  They actually LIKE one another. (Quick! Someone capture this moment for posterity!)

Merry Christmas ... and God bless us, everyone!!