Only one more sleep 'til Christmas.

For real this time, it's Christmas eve and I have not wrapped a thing. I should be over there wrapping, instead of sitting here typing. But, no. I'm a lazy ass.

One more cigarette, then I will start wrapping. I promise.

______

And wrap I did. All the gifts for my family, in plain red paper with green ribbon and bows, his family in plain green paper with red ribbons and bows, and all of Tony's in red paper with gold stars and both kinds of ribbons.

Boxes upon boxes of gifts. Everything except 1 shirt and 1 DVD in various other boxes to throw the nosy people in my family off the scent.

My fingers are aching, my scissors are dull, if I never saw wrapping paper again, it would be too soon. I did have help, though. Kyrsie decided she would help. Now, if you've never wrapped with a four year old helping, you have no clue what it's like.

First, she wanted to cut the wrapping paper. No way was I allowing her sharp scissors. We compromised. Ha, there is no compromising with her. I ordered her to help me with the tape. As I wrapped she would pull the tape off the roll.

Sometimes trying to place it where I showed her to put it. And missing. We'd try again and again, until she got it right. Yeah, we used probably twice as much tape as normal, but she was having fun.

Then, she wanted to write the tags. Kyrsie is just learning to write, most words are not decipherable as of yet. In order to allow her practice and to keep her involved, she wrote Tony's name over and over for me. Each tag she'd place gently on the desk and ask me to spell his name out. Then, I would spell Sue for her.

And on a few of them, you can even read both names. It worked well, keeping her busy, and letting me wrap as fast as I could.

Hour upon hour rolled on, wrapping, and stacking. Again, Kyrsie helping with the stacking. I would hand her a wrapped present, tell her where it belonged, and she would walk off with it.

She really was a great help with that, as there was no way I could to all the back and forth through the house without killing myself. Eventually, she left with her Mom about the same time I finished with the wrapping.

I cleaned up as best I could, Tony got home, and we headed for the Lodge which is a family tradition that we often miss due to work or other things, but not this year. We sat there for awhile, and I could feel it.

I allowed myself to just relax and the illness began to descend, the one I wrote about a day or two ago. My temperature shot up, my body started to ache. Christmas was the illness winner this year and there was nothing I could do about it.

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Christmas morning is done here, at the house. Santa comes here for the kids and we all open gifts together. Tre and Kyrsie had matching pajamas, which I do have a picture of somewhere.

Around 8PM or so we were watching a Christmas cartoon, Kyrsie was on the couch with her Mom, and we heard the clattering of hoofs, the jingle of bells, and a deep booming Ho!HO!HO! from outside.

She stopped, dead, her face breaking into the biggest smile I have ever seen, hands out, and her whole body shaking with excitement. Santa was here, the reindeer must be eating the reindeer food (Mary, my sister, makes a bucket of reindeer food for Kyrsie to leave out Christmas Eve.)

Kyrsie asked us if it was true that Santa was here, we assured her, he was stopping to see if she was asleep, yet. The joy on her face was just immeasurable. I had to walk out of the room for a minute so no one could see me tear up.

A few minutes later Lori and Tony came inside and told us they had seen Santa's sleigh flying through the neighborhood, it wasn't long before she was asleep dreaming of Christmas morning.

Christmas, as an adult, just doesn't have the magic it did when you were a child. Unless you're watching a child you love discover the magic of the day. The pure joy and wonder at it all is just astounding.

________

After Kyrsie drifted off to sleep and Tre did the same, Tony and I went to our room to do our Christmas. Normally we wait until midnight to exchange gifts, but I was feeling worse and worse as time wore on. We started early, but ended up opening gifts for several hours. Each gift is lingered over. Each package is felt, shaken, and looked over before we open it.

Then we mess with the gift for awhile before moving on. Christmas is the time of year we spoil one another. We spend entirely too money on each other, but since we don't do it the rest of the year, it's okay. And Tony outdid himself this year. My list from him:
PlayDoh
Modeling Clay
Chocolate
Books, including Alton Brown's new one
A paper journal which is just incredibly beautiful
DVDs (Lilo and Stitch, Stitch 2, Anna Nicole, Dixie Chicks Live, BeetleJuice, and The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror)
and Jewelry
2 pairs of Garnet Earrings
and a 3 stone Garnet ring.

I cried when I opened the jewelry. He's always so worried about buying me jewelry since I have odd taste, but they're just perfect. The ring has to be sized for my right hand, which he knew. Just incredibly beautiful and wonderful and I just don't know what else to say. He's such a wonderful man.