Home of the Four Trans

Twenty seven years of life (almost thirty for Loi), and never before such a wonderful Christmas. The obvious: Justin made it this far, and actually had the health to enjoy it! The not-so-obvious: Christmas had such great meaning for all of us.

Forget about the presents–the hunt for the perfect (material) gift eluded me this year. Standing in line among the mounds and mazes of toys and clothes galore, swerving Nathan in his stroller through the flocks of running children and mindless people, with wide shopping bags hanging from the handles, didn’t faze me. The three day countdown with 25 gifts left to buy? No biggie. I was buying gifts for people who had every (material) thing–just different versions of it. The perfect gift for anyone on my list simply did not exist. How true is the saying that the best things in life cannot be bought. And, it really is the thought that matters.Wow, it’s like all those life’s lessons taught to me as a child finally makes sense, now. Crystal clear.

As for me? I didn’t want any (material) thing…and, meant it.

Come Christmas morning, I had everything–my babes, my man, and us, together. Justin’s WAAAAAHHHH! cried, LIFE! Nathan’s MAAAWWWWWMEEEE screamed PURPOSE. I am a mother with my children. I am a wife with my husband. No amount of money or worldly possession could ever buy me what I have. My boys, they’ll learn. Their youth is meant to be enjoyed with presents and toys and Mommy embarrassing them. Nathan ripped open his packages from us and smirked, “It is mine!”, after realizing we had tricked him into thinking the unwrapped Bob the Builder vehicles and Cars! race track he found earlier last week were not his, so that he would not open those. After devouring 3 of his own, Nathan helped Justin open his gifts to reveal a furry, pink, half-foot Piglet, and a Leapfrog caterpillar toy. All the while, bewildered Justin just stared at his big brother as he pressed the multi-colored buttons on the caterpillars, showing him how to make music. So intrigued by his older brother already!

Fun for me meant dressing them up in matching newspaper boy outfits–caps, black booties, and all!–and, taking pictures to remind them of it. Between our two large extended families, we celebrated Christmas 4 times! The boys are definitely not without–material or not! Hope you all had a memorable Christmas/holiday!

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 27th, 2007 at 3:22 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.