Our kitchen was filled with laughter and memories today – it finally felt like Christmas!

Sugar Cookie Day looks a little different now then it did 20 years ago. Dozens of cookies of all shapes and sizes have been replaced with man sized Christmas Trees. Three colors of icing, chocolate sprinkes, and multi colored sparkles have given way to a giant bowl of icing plopped beside the cookie jar for “ice as you go” convenience. When they were little, the boys would often lose interest after decorating 4 or 5 cookies and I’d be left all alone to decorate the remaining three dozen by myself. Now I’m lucky if there are still cookies left by the time I’ve washed the dishes!

Even Jordan made an appearance to eat some dough – lured no doubt by the traditional sugar cookie music – Lucas and I were singing along to “I believe in Santa Clause” from Kenny and Dolly’s Once Upon A Christmas. The original television special aired the Christmas Greg was travelling in Australia, and “Christmas Without You” can still bring me to tears. I wore out the vinyl album and was thrilled to find the CD a few years ago. A copy now lives on my IPOD  – so if we are ever blessed by grandchildren the tradition will live on.

What would the world be like without music instantly transporting you to people and places? Memories of this year will be stirred everytime I hear “I want a hippopotamus for Christmas” – I’ll picture bare chested Lucas with his home done haircut (it looks surprisingly good) belting out ” No crocodiles, or rhinoceruses, I only like hippopotamusses!”

Last Christmas I was still pretty raw, and I spent a lot of time listening to the Goo Goo Dolls and hoping for “better days”

“And you ask me what I want this year

And I’ll try to make this kind and clear

Just a chance that maybe we’ll find better days”

I’m not sure that at first glance you’d classify 2010 as “better days”,  but it certainly taught me to be better at accepting that which I cannot change, changing those things that are within my control, and being thankful for all that is good and joyful in my life. So the Christmas song getting a lot of play time at our house this year is Josh Grobin’s “Thankful”.

 Some days, we forget to look around us.

Some days, we can’t see the joy that surrounds us.

So caught up inside ourselves, we take when we should give.

So for tonight we pray for what we know can be.

And on this day we hope for what we still can’t see.

It’s up to us to be the change,

And even though we all can still do more,

There’s so much to be thankful for.

I am thankful for all of you and I am hoping you are all enjoying the season as well.