the night before christmas

 It's Christmas Eve, and I am waiting up a wee bit longer before the presents come out ... I just don't want anyone to wake up while I am in the midst of it all!
The music is cued and the tea is being sipped. I am content and feeling oh so blessed.
It's hard to wrap this kind of feeling up into words. There is so much to say, express and feel. It is in a few words: easy, beautiful, magical, and simple.
This will be our last little Christmas up in the Yukon, and I working at letting every little detail and memory sink in. From the walks to the post office, the tiny church service, the hugs and "merry Christmases exchanged", the home life ... it is all culminating and special. I want to remember it all.
This is the year where we have excitement, wonder, and innocence in our children. We are in a tiny remote community, away from the hustle and bustle of malls and city life. Our Christmas has been focused on intentional activities, with no distractions or long lists of things to accomplish. It's been quiet, simple and stress free, how that has happened, I will always wonder.
Yesterday, I decided that we would do a little pyjama drive around to look at the lights. Now you may wonder, just how many lights there could actually be in Beaver Creek, but surprisingly, people do decorate here. We had fun driving around, looking at them and sipping hot chocolate.
Today, after church, we came home prepared a bunch of snacks and settled in for a classic family movie, Merry Christmas Mr. Bean. After that, we took a very cold (-30!) walk to the post office and back and then made our own concoctions of magic reindeer food (oats, glitter, chocolate chips, cookie sprinkles ei. all things I had on hand.). It was an easy combination of things to do, but no real rush or stress.
And now, I am off to lay out the gifts (with Winslow). We have the music going, and the fake fireplace playing on the tv (someday we'll have a real fire place). I'm not sure who is more excited for tomorrow morning. Us or them! It took them extra long to fall asleep.
Good night. Merry Christmas.
xox

This year there is a certain awareness that I have deep in my heart, that this very moment is a gift to treasure. In May of 2014, my cousin's beautiful, sweet, spirited 2 year old boy, Sana'a,  was taken away from our family, in a terrible and avoidable incident. It goes without saying that the pain and loss of losing Sana'a, is and will forever be present. It is heart breaking and I know that this Christmas is especially hard on my cousin and her family. 

Nothing is life is ever guaranteed. The things that we most treasure are often the ones that we take for granted and never imagine gone. It is so unbearably unfair that my cousin must endure this heart break and there is nothing that anyone can do to help her, except to keep her and the rest of our family close to our hearts.
This Christmas, I will be holding my babies extra close, and cherishing these special moments 
with them. I only wish that it could be the same for my cousin and her family.