"Kissmas"

"Kissmas". That's what Ethan calls it. "Ho, Ho, Ho, Merry Kissmas Mommy!" he said to me today as we sat together in the family room watching the movie ELF. My heart melted, of coarse. It's hard to be excited about Christmas time when most of your family is on the other side of the country. Having Christmas with your children is so much fun, but there's always a little part of you that feels disappointed that all of the Grandpas and Grandmas, Aunts and Uncles, and cousins are missing out on the joy shown in your children's faces when they open those special packages. There's no helping your Mom fix Christmas dinner because you are the Mom. There's no Christmas night card games with more people than there are chairs. Our Christmas is now with a Mom, a Dad, and four children. Even so, I know our Christmas will be a lot of fun this year. One day soon, we hope to be able to return to our families in Ohio and West Virginia and spend Christmas with them the way that we used to. But, for now, we will snuggle up tight with our little fellows, relish in homemade Christmas cookies and Buckeye making day with our princesses, and do our best to have a very, merry, Kissmas.