End of the Year Dividends

These Christmas mornings with children are one of the great payoffs of parenthood. We have just one little tiny charming girl and she's only just begun to realize that receiving many new toys all at once doesn't occur everyday. When I watched her little chubby hand retrieve three hot wheels cars from her stocking and she caught a glimpse of her prize, the expression on her face shouted, "how could I be so lucky?" And I had the same thought, although for different reasons. So I can imagine that we are nearing peak on the "joy of Christmas" roller coaster ride. As our children (NO we are not pregnant) near the ages of 5-11 I will probably not embrace the warm little bodies entering our room in the wee hours of 3-6 a.m. But to see that uncontainable anticipation and joy at the surprises in their stocking and wrapped under the tree is cause for me to anticipate and enjoy all those Christmases to come.
This is Kate in one her most common poses, I call it "studying." She's giving those hot wheels a once-over just to be sure none of the elves were off-task.

This is the traditional "on the stairs" shot. Unfortunately our pics from Christmas morning turned out pretty poorly, this is the best we've got. I promise she was much happier and much more excited than this picture lets on.

Kate opened her baby stroller first. We could hardly drag her away from doing laps around the living room to open more gifts.