Presents, food and decorations are all good stuff, how can you not be happy about those things? We ARE talking about Honey Baked Ham, ya’ll and that’s reason enough to get in the spirit. I do enjoy all those things and never fail to be thankful for them.
But you know what really rocked this Christmas? We didn’t end up in the hospital…even though Peyton was sick…there was no throwing up or cranky steroid fits…things have have tainted a LOT of our past holidays. I saw Peyton laughing and playing, full of energy and giddy from the fun of it all. She opened her presents with a nasty case of bed head…BED HEAD…do you know how good bed head looks on a child that’s spent so much of her young life bald?
And THAT? Makes this Christmas EXTRA good.
I remember reading the idea that if “bad” didn’t exist, we’d have no reference for what is “good”. For example, if you had never experienced “pain”, how would you be able to know that you felt “healthy”? How could you explain “light” if you didn’t have “dark”?
I truly believe that. This Christmas didn’t have the most presents, the prettiest tree, the most festive parties, but what it did have was a beautiful reminder of how far my family has come. It brought the understanding of how blessed we are, not just to have a table full of food or a stack of boxes waiting to be opened, but for having each other and for the gift that life is.
It was bittersweet because the day couldn’t pass without thinking of my many friends who are spending this first Christmas without their child unwrapping presents and causing chaos. It made the sight of my children wrestling around in a sea of paper and bows that much more precious.
I suppose that some might say that my standards have dropped a bit if a day is considered good for it’s noted lack of puke…but in my book, it just means that I’ve learned to appreciate little things most people miss.
Christmas 2006 – good
Christmas 2007 – good
Christmas 2008? No question, folks….GOOD!
You can also find me at Hope4Peyton, The Mayhew Review and Twitter, you should come by, it’s nice…we have cookies! Feel free to email me at Anissa.Mayhew (at) gmail (dot )com.