We started the day with a conked-out fridge (great timing, huh?), and are finishing it with a frenzy of wrapping. In between was a requisite trip to the mall and some present delivery. Christmas Eve is such a funny mix of frantic and final. You hit a point where there is nothing left to do...or at least nothing else you can do.

Traditionally, we'll have sausages for dinner tonight. This dates back to Christmases spent with a German friend of ours and it stuck. And then we'll settle in. It's funny. When I did that Christmas meme, it made me think about how differently Neel and I have framed Christmas for our family than how I spent Christmas growing up. My dad and I talked about it a little this week. For him, it was some about the presents, but a lot about the fighting going on around him too. For me there was none of that. My grandparents were there. Black bean soup for dinner with Moyers potato chips. When I was very small we went to Christmas Eve services, but as I grew older we stopped doing that. We opened our presents on Christmas Eve (here's hoping Callum doesn't read this!) and Santa came on Christmas morning. It was all about the presents the food and the love. I thought we did it perfectly and loved every minute of it.

We do it very differently now, and I still think it's pretty perfect. A big part of me misses having a place to go for Christmas Eve services, but we haven't found our home for that yet. So tonight we'll eat some sausages and watch some San Diego Chargers football. We'll open our presents on Christmas morning, with Bloody Marys and bread pudding, and finish the day with Beef Wellington and a lot of champagne.

What a month it's been. I didn't do a lot of crafting or baking or any of the other things I used to do when I was home with my boy and didn't have a job to go to everyday, but man, we had a lot of fun. School's out now, so we'll see what the next few weeks bring. I feel like my family is wrapped around me right now, in the best of ways. Merry, merry Christmas. My heart is full.