…and it’s over in the blink of an eye.\u00a0 I’m speaking of Christmas morning, of course!<\/p>\n
For whatever reason, I have never been able to sleep on Christmas Eve.\u00a0 I’m pretty sure I get it from my Dad.\u00a0 He’s the same way.\u00a0 It’s especially interesting since both of us can fall asleep at any time under almost any circumstances.\u00a0 But somehow the excitement of Christmas is enough to keep our weary eyes open.\u00a0 This year, I discovered that I have passed this trait along to my oldest daughter.\u00a0 She went to bed and fell asleep with no problem.\u00a0 At midnight when Hattie (the middle child) woke up, Abigail was roused.\u00a0 Hattie was able to go back to sleep but Abigail was AWAKE.\u00a0 She spent the next 5 and a half hours laying next to me in our bed sighing and moaning and asking if it was time yet.\u00a0 The only one who slept through the night was Laura, the 3 year old.\u00a0 She NEVER sleeps through the night.<\/p>\n
I guess Christmas will do that.\u00a0 It’s such a wondrous time for everyone.\u00a0 Just so you know, I’m not talking about presents here.\u00a0 Those are a bonus.\u00a0 There is so much more.\u00a0 The family traditions are my favorite.\u00a0 The time we spend together as a family not because we have to but because we want to.\u00a0 I realize that the Christmas traditions are probably similar in many families but it’s spending time with our own families that is the icing on the cake.\u00a0 We wear pajamas and drive around to see lights one night.\u00a0 We attend Christmas parties and programs.\u00a0 We even hosted a party this year.\u00a0 We pick out and decorate our tree together.\u00a0 Robert and I watch Christmas Vacation<\/a>.\u00a0 We have an Elf on the Shelf<\/a> and send letters to Santa.\u00a0 We watch all the Christmas movies and annual specials.\u00a0 We read The Night Before Christmas and leave out goodies for Santa.<\/p>\n One thing different for us this year is that we are not going to be with our extended families on Christmas day.\u00a0 We are now 5 hours from them and it’s getting more and more difficult to move Christmas.\u00a0 Instead we are going to be with them in a few days.\u00a0 It’s the best decision for our little pod of five but we will miss it all the same.<\/p>\n To me, the best part of all is the wonder.\u00a0 I don’t know what it is but there is a feeling of magic this time of year.\u00a0 Maybe it is the belief in something bigger than we are.\u00a0 Maybe it is being reminded of the love we share for each other.\u00a0 Whatever it is for you, whether it be the celebration of a baby’s birth long ago or a first Christmas together, I hope that you have a wonderful holiday season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" …and it’s over in the blink of an eye.\u00a0 I’m speaking of Christmas morning, of course! For whatever reason, I…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[112,116,114,113,115],"class_list":["post-239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-random-thoughts","tag-christmas-morning","tag-family","tag-magic","tag-presents","tag-traditions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/annakatedonovan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/annakatedonovan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/annakatedonovan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annakatedonovan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annakatedonovan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=239"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/annakatedonovan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":241,"href":"https:\/\/annakatedonovan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239\/revisions\/241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/annakatedonovan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annakatedonovan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annakatedonovan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}