Eager for Christmas

Being the lover of warmth and light that I am, I tend to mourn the departure of summer and dread the arrival of winter. I like fall, and I love the holidays of Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years; but after those, there is such a long period of cold, dark winter left before spring, my favorite season, comes peeking around again.

However, this morning, I felt full of eagerness as I thought about Christmas approaching; and here is the reason why...

...one small boy, dressed in plaid flannel pajamas.

You might be wondering why Tobin was dressed in these PJs, and the answer would be that all his summer ones were in the laundry, of course. (I can happily report that today I got caught up on laundry so tonight he's wearing much cooler pajamas; and these flannel ones, which were really too tight for him anyway, are laid away until Shav is big enough to wear them.)

But something about the sight of Tobin reminded me of the joys of cooler weather, of snuggles on the couch, of hot chocolate, of a merry fire in the woodstove, of time spent homeschooling my boys and building sweet memories with them through that, of bundling up to go outside to sled and then returning to the warm house with rosy cheeks. And Christmas! This year, we'll have four boys in warm, cuddly pajamas on Christmas morning. What fun!

There are a few other reasons I'm looking forward to Christmas. By then, surely...

~ the parts of my body that nourish my youngest son will have toughened up and not be sore anymore,

~ Shav will be an old pro at sleeping through the night,

~ and Tobin will be walking by then!