It's a Wonderful Life

On Christmas morning, James and I awoke to the sound of Caitlin stirring. Thankfully it was around 8am. We heard her make her way upstairs, move about a little and then descend the stairs. As she hurried along the hallway she excitedly called out to Ashley:

“Look Ashley, Santa didn’t leave me coal, he left me these!”

"These" were the candy cane, the Lindt chocolate reindeer and the bag of Ferrero Rocher that she loves (my daughters do have taste when it comes to chocolate!). She obviously had a little moment of fear when she anticipated what would be in her stocking. Amazing what they pick up from Christmas songs and stories. Did she think she’d “been bad or good”? I think her exclamation above reveals that answer. She sounded like she’d anticipated at least one hunk of coal…

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We had a wonderful day together, a simple, but special day and I felt blessed to share it with James' parents. I'm so grateful that they made the long trip from Dublin to be with us. The day was made all the more magical by the snow that started falling late morning and continued all afternoon. Out of every window I could see the heavy snowfall as we moved leisurely about the house, or just sat and played games, or read, or chatted. A white Christmas in Seattle! Every so often I found myself humming or singing, "Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow".

Santa was good to me and I spent the day in my new 'Life is Good' pajamas and socks. We spent the morning enjoying each others' company, playing with the girls and after dinner, I read from a new book (or at least dozed in the attempt). Later, after the girls went to bed, we watched another of my gifts, It’s a Wonderful Life. I was surprised to discover that neither by husband nor my mother-in-law had seen the film. We enjoyed the closeness of this family moment, which was very much added to by Ashley joining us near the end. She is a little under the weather and couldn’t sleep. She snuggled on the sofa with us under her favorite “teddy quilt” and seemed very content to be with us.

I haven’t seen It’s a Wonderful Life for many years but felt the urge to add it to my collection for this, and future, Christmases. I admire Frank Capra’s honest, yet uplifting look at the human condition. I was struck last night, in a way I hadn’t been struck before, by the message in the movie: “no man is a failure who has friends.”

Here’s to a successful New Year rich in moments with family and friends.