30 December 2006

Love Is... (holiday edition)

Love is...


  • your husband saying "Go back to bed, I'll get up with her," at 4 am the morning after a transatlantic flight.
  • visiting with a friend you haven't seen in a long time and picking up exactly where you left off.
  • two little girls shrieking and hugging each other. And then picking up exactly where they left off.
  • leaving the house by 7:30 am on your day off and taking the car to the tire-repair shop so your son and daughter-in-law can drive it for a few weeks.
  • buying a bunk bed in order to fit the maximum number of children and grandchildren into your house at one time.
  • 14 kinds of Christmas cookies.
  • saying "You two go to the movies. We'll make cookies with Katrina while you're gone."
  • no, wait, 15 kinds of Christmas cookies.
  • an 11-year-old girl spending over an hour crawling around on her hands and knees because her 4-year-old cousin wants to play "secret agent."
  • listening to your sister sing "I Will Survive" on her niece's karaoke machine and only pointing and laughing a wee little bit.
  • watching two blonde heads and one redhead huddled together around one microphone.
  • seeing pure wonder on your daughter's face as she carefully holds a candle at the end of the Christmas Eve service.
  • witnessing a couple quietly renewing their wedding vows after 40 years together, in the presence of the family their union created.
  • watching your daughter twirl and whirl in the sunshine after seeing "The Nutcracker."

and finally, love is...

  • gluten-free Chex Mix. Oh, yeah.