It’s +5 on Christmas Eve. Really, my entire list of gratitudes should just stop there. The weather is beautiful, the sun is shining (for a few more minutes…), and there is just enough snow on the ground to cover up the mud._uacct = “UA-4888259-1″;urchinTracker();

Perfect, really

• husbands who come home
• last-minute miracles at Walmart, in the form of Princess flashlights – these have been requested with dire need, and I had no freaking idea where to find them. Then, in a flurry of Christmas Eve shopping for tampons and ribbon at Walmart, I found them: smiling up at me from the bottom rack of the impulse shelves in the checkout line. I may have squee’d a little
• sledding on our hill. I love that we have a hill on our acreage that is perfect for sledding!
• (most) gifts wrapped and ready to roll
• honey-roasted peanuts, despite their atrocious calorie count. Why?? Whyyyy?
• the Glee Christmas album, even though I’m not a big Glee fan…
• reading about all the people preparing for the real Christmas celebration, and not just some overinflated consumer holiday
• overcoming the urge to give in to buying things “just because” I have to, and instead only buying things that would be important and appreciated by their receiver
• snuggling with warm, fuzzy-footed bugz in my bed, or their bed, or on the couch watching movies
• virtual hugs and encouragement
• lighting candles in the low afternoon light
• stories before bedtime
• yoga passes and meditation
• hot coffee and handsome husbands
• brown paper packages tied up with string ribbon, waiting for little eyes to close tonight
• a date booked for Kit-kat’s GI scope and biopsy, even if it’s two months later than we expected – it means we can eat “normally” for a little while longer
• no one barfing in the past 36 hours…
• books to read, so many books to read!
• Christmas humour:

• friends, family and being together
• homemade gifts, despite my lack of “crafty”
• the thought of warm cinnamon buns for breakfast tomorrow…although then I should also be prepared to be grateful for a trip to Superstore, since I just remembered I have no flour…never mind that plan…
• homemade hot cocoa and little hands gripping mugs

Peace, love and happiness to you and your family this Christmas. May you be blessed with the goodness that you put out into the world in 2011, and get everything your heart deserves.

xoxo