Christmas Lights

One day this last week, I had had a terrible day. Joyce and Julie were at my house and no matter how I tried, the pain was too intense to find a comfortable place on the bed or couch. I grabbed a pillow and hoped the firmness of the floor would help. I immediately dozed off to sleep on the floor in the middle of the family room, finally escaping the excruciating pain I was in.

As I slept there, Jodi came in with Brooklyn crying and Brigham upset and crying. Talmage was just happy to be at our house. As she walked in, so did my dear friend, LeAnn with dinner. Soon after, with all the chaos in full swing, Thomas came home from work.

They all laughed that I could sleep peacefully in the middle of such confusion and noise.

When I woke up, Thomas had fed all the kids dinner and had a plate waiting for me. The kids by now, were mostly in the toy room playing and having fun. Not long after I ate, crying came from the toy room and from how I was told the beginning of the night went, I thought we could all use a break.

I told the kids to put on shoes and get in the car. In awe, all eyes looked up at me, and asked if we were headed to urgent care. I smiled, said no, I have a surprise. They all bounded for the car. As Thomas backed out of the driveway, the kids chattered in amazement and wondered where we were headed.

I told them we were going to look at Christmas lights and make a game out of it. Could we locate more Santas or more Snowmen. Brooklyn and Hayden quickly chose Santa and told Brigham and Talmage to find Snowmen with me and Thomas. Game On.

We drove and had a great time looking at lights, excitedly looking for Santas and Snowmen and Talmage was so excited to see candy canes. I was amazed at thru the laughter and yelling and spotting of the items that I hush would come over the car when they saw a baby Jesus.

Some of my favorite moments of the entire season are from that short one hour car ride. Each time Talmage saw a target looking of lights, he would yell, "Look, another Target. My mommy no knows about this one." We laughed and laughed.

We took turns singing carol after carol, with each one in between being Jingle Bells, cause that was all Talmage knew.

We even swung into McDonald's for an ice cream cone, our tradition for looking at lights. The kids were thrilled.

It was the perfect night. One I will always cherish. The kids were so excited that I was in the car and doing something fun. They wanted to make it special and perfect for me. Oh did they! My heart still is overwhelmed with emotions with even the remembrance of our own perfect night.