Christmas 2008 -- Emme's First Christmas, Four Missing Front Teeth, and a Christmas Miracle

In a flash, Christmas has come and gone again. I have already taken down all my Christmas decorations, ready for the new year and new beginnings. Christmas 2008 was at times hectic, at times peaceful, and at times special. In its simple way, Christmas this year helped remind us what Christmas every year should be about -- giving without any expectation of anything large or small in return. That is what Christ did and who He is. Here are some highlights from Christmas Break 2008:

On December 19, Stephen had the opportunity to go to Sophie's school and open doors, read to her class, and eat lunch with her. Bella Blue came along for the reading and lunch time. They had a fantastic day together.

For Christmas Eve, we decided to bring dinner, music, gifts, and sugar cookies over to my mom and grandpa Taylor and spend the evening with them. We ate, decorated cookies, talked, opened a few gifts, and enjoyed the time together. It turned out to be a special evening.

Christmas morning brought a Christmas miracle. The unofficial version goes like this. Among the many gifts and trinkets that the girls and Harrison received from Santa, Sophie and Bella each got a Furberry. Of course, Harrison wanted one but didn't have one in his pile (note to Santa, next year get them all the same exact things!). So, after many minutes of tugging and warring over the Furberries (and thanks to overbuying on Amazon.com) a knock sounded on the front door out of the blue, and when the kids came running from the backyard to see who it was, there on the front step was a third Furberry and a note from Peetie, Santa's Chief Elf and Spy. Peetie explained in his note to the kids that this third Furberry had fallen off of Santa's sleigh, Rudolph found it and told Peetie about the mishap, and Peetie, doing his elfly clean-up duties, was delivering the wayward gift. A Christmas miracle indeed! All were content (for at least 30 minutes anyway).

Later Christmas day, we gathered with Stephen's family at his parent's house for food and games. We actually tried something new this year and got together on December 21 to exchange gifts and have dinner (partly because some extended family members were going to be away on Christmas and partly to avoid the overwhelming nature of a Christmas gathering with 25-30 people). It seemed to work out fine, but it probably just resulted in one extra day of gathering because we basically did the same thing, sans the gifts and a few people, on Christmas.

And the best gift this year, other than the important ones discussed above? Lucky the Wonder Pup. Better than a real dog, at least for a few more years. As you can see, what Sophie really needed was her two (four!) front teeth, but Lucky is what she wanted and what she got. And I'll be darned if the dog doesn't do all the tricks, upon voice command, the commercials promise. Meanwhile, Harrison would rather color ("codor") in the dollar store coloring book that he got than play with the many toys he and his sisters received. It figures.