Merry Christmas to you!

We are ensconced in the warm room here at Claire's house in Aurora. Two days post-Christmas it is good to hunker down and do not-too-much here, together. It's been a wonderful Christmas, all told, despite a boy being sick with a fever and general malaise that hit on Christmas Eve. He did not let it get in the way of his enjoyment of the recurring piles of presents over these past 3 days, nor of his extreme joy in getting to play with his cousins (oh, the tears when we suggested waiting til the day after Christmas to travel to NY!). And for the most part it hasn't dulled the glow of the holiday for the rest of us, either. It would be hard, really, to counter the magic of something that looks like this:
(Christmas Eve. The most magical night of the year. I would like to bottle up the way our living room felt at that moment...)

Christmas morning, we had our work cut out for us. All of those presents plus the box you can see Becca carrying, in the background of this picture:

We were up to the task. Ivy was enthusiastic about her stocking presents, spending most of her time gumming the black plastic spoon purchased for her (in honor of her brother's fascination with a black plastic spoon on HIS first Christmas, you'll remember). She was content to watch the insanity as Jack blew through all of his presents and proceeded to help Nat and I with ours. The girl went down for a nap by the time breakfast was ready. We enjoyed our traditional special-day breakfast of meat with a side of meat, eggs, and pastry overload, and then headed back in for the dismantling of the tree presents.


"before"-- the traditional Henderson-women-in-front-of-the-tree shot. bonus this year: a new generation!

"after": the present piles...

Jack with one of his favorite presents-- Boris from Dinosaur Train. The other winner? His Hotwheels track from Becca. No good pics of that as they were all action shots and well, it goes really fast...



Corydon really likes Christmas. Mostly, I think, because it means sitting on the couch next to me all morning. She spent her time putting her head on any and every object I placed on the couch...I love my dog.




Ivy woke from her nap just as the rest of the presents had been opened. We had a lovely, calm time opening her gifts as Jack watched Hotwheels videos on the laptop and Becca set up her new camera in the background. We could have given little girl just one present, I think, with a good bow on top, as a green bow was the main object of interest for her. But she was a good sport and attentively watched me open her whole pile of gifts.

By the time the present insanity was winding down, Jack's last Ibuprofen dose was wearing off, too, and he was in rough shape. We finally made the decision to head off to NY anyways and 2 hours of inefficient packing later, we were on our way. We've been doing this run-off-to-NY-for-Christmas-dinner thing for a number of years now, but never with two kids. We really ought to stop underestimating the difference having two kids makes. Really. It is exceedingly hard to do quick last minute packing and preparations with a baby in one arm. Particularly when the other hand is frequently being used to wipe the nose of the sick three year old. But-- we made it! We arrived to Claire's post-dinner but in time for a brief gift exchange with the Koon family. A very, very happy boy played beautifully with his cousins and it was all worth it.
He's been working on recovering since then...

Last night brought more gifts, with Randy's family, including a treasure hunt to the barn where all 6 grandchildren received personalized, locking toy boxes from Lulu.



And today-- hunkering down. Working on getting a boy well. Watching a girl get to know her grandmother and explore her world. A trip to Target, of course, for half-price Christmas supplies, but then we headed home quickly ahead of an approaching snowstorm. It's cold, in the teens outside, but the fire has been stoked all day in here and we are warm. We hope your holidays have been warm and wonderful too.

Much love.