Nola understood the concept of Christmas about as well as Charlie Brown prior to Linus’ classic speech, but that didn’t make it any less perfect. In fact, this was one of the best holidays of my life. Snow began to fall on Christmas eve and didn’t stop until the number 26 had firmly replaced my favorite day of the year on our calendar. We ate, sang, danced, wrapped, ate, unwrapped, ate, ate and ate.

Favorite gifts thus far (for Nola) have been a set of squeaky blocks courtesy Santa Claus, a Fur Real friends walking/meowing kitty and a copy of Mo Willems’ “Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus” - both courtesy Grandma and Grandpa Miller. We’ve read her new book at least 40 times since opening it Christmas morning.

For me, the best gift of all was that, in every single way, Christmas 2010 felt like Christmas. If joy is the ultimate Christmas gift then I hit the jackpot because I was bursting with joy from 5:45AM straight until the last UNO hand was finished at 10:45PM. We even attempted to eat 1/2-pound Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, but only made it about 1/8th of the way through before surrendering.

Here’s hoping your holiday was as great as mine or, that you felt a lot of love even if there also was a lot of stress.

Filed under: Daddy Style, Daddy Things, Husband & Wife, Nola Eleanor