December 25, 2004 - Thursday
(I just love this story, the whole three days of it..) Harry came in our room this morning at about 7:15am (not too bad!) with a smile as pure as the morning sunshine. For a moment I thought he might have gone downstairs and seen all the presents under the tree, but he had not.

"There's a flower on my window," he said effusively, "Santa knew I wanted a flower and he gave me one!"

He went on about the poinsettia a little more, but I don't quite remember the words. But I do remember the joy and that wonderful smile, and, I think, a sense of pride that came from having given, been patient, then received and knowing he deserved it.

The rest of the morning was joyful, too. After Harry's materialistic rush through his birthday presents I had been wondering if this morning would go by in a big flash of ripped paper and comments of "this is cool" and "nothing cool here." But it did not. Harry and Jeremy both opened their stockings, ate a good breakfast, and opened the rest of their presents with the all the joy and curiosity of youth. Maybe he had been showing off for Chloe on his birthday, I don't know, but this morning he was a cherub. And Jeremy, well, he's is always cherub, smiling and pudgy and happy with the world on Christmas day.

One of the biggest successes this morning was this silly fishing game with batteries that make the base vibrate and the fish move. The boys have been watching fishing shows (and Drivers Down, a scuba show) at lunch on the weekends instead of the old bowling show and seemed to like the idea of fishing. Admittedly, with a little less dexterity than his brother, Jeremy needed to be a little more resourceful and used his free hand to help the fish onto his hook. Fortunately, Harry didn't complain too much. Here he is with Grampa John and Gramma Judy who came to stay with us for the next couple of days.


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