Hooray, it’s over! But it was a good one.

It pays to get sick at times like this, because then you’re forced to relax and let it happen. I have a sore throat with coughing and aching, so have no idea how the food was, couldn’t taste anything and didn’t really care. I got the turkey stuffed and in the oven with the sweet potatoes, and lay down. Set the table, and had a nap. It was a quiet Xmas morning. 

The gang arrived early afternoon for the ripping and the exclamations and the pile on. My great thrill was that Ben and Eli had made me something; Eli, who does not enjoy reading or writing, did a beautiful book report of one of my favourite books, Charlotte’s Web. I’m sure it was a lot of work from his mother to get it done, but it’s a treasure.

Best of all was what came next. Thomas, Eli’s dad, was here with us as usual, but then Matt, Ben’s dad, arrived for dinner. This was the first time Anna’s two “baby daddies,” as she calls them, were here together. I don’t know how she has managed these two, but she has; they both love both boys and now are perfectly comfortable with each other. At one point, the boys were playing a sort of badminton game with Matt with Thomas watching and laughing.

Amazing.

The boys will go with Matt tomorrow to his family, for their third Christmas. Are they lucky or what? 

Thomas with his boys at Anna’s.

Sam with his boy here. 

Now I get to put it all away, the tiny tree with its tiny decorations, the cards, the lights, the box of wrapping paper. I’ll watch Call the Midwife and go to bed, and get better, and move on. I call Xmas a tsunami every year, but this year it wasn’t so much. The tsunami was the weather, the storm, trains and planes cancelled, people stuck for hours. 

What a blessing to gather with loved ones, to feast, to exchange gifts that show we’ve been thinking of each other, in this house where we’ve celebrated Christmas thirty-six times. The greatest gift.