Our Holiday Blessing

Teddy, your arrival makes the holidays so much more special. Every day feels pretty magical because of you, and this is especially true on Christmas. You are all that we’ve hoped and longed for – our greatest holiday gift. This year, it’s just the three of us because your grandparents and Aunt Anneliese visited around the time of your birth. Our little family is creating its own holiday traditions, with a tree heavy with your mom’s ornaments (your dad was surprised at the bounty when he married me), your dad’s two Homer Simpson ornaments prominently displayed, and the addition of a Baby’s First Christmas 2010 ornament. We’ve been busy sending cards, baking cookies, making surprises, listening to Sufjan Stevens’ Songs for Christmas, reading Truman Capote’s A Christmas Memory, and, most importantly, snuggling with and loving you. In future years, we’ll join our extended families for holiday extravaganzas in California, where you’ll try to keep up with your cousin Zach, or in St. Louis, where your Great Aunt Mary hosts our large family gathering and where you’ll be able to find fun and a little trouble with my cousins’ 13 children and enjoy a white Christmas. Wherever we are, you’ll feel the love of your parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncle. For now, we’re home treasuring you in this mighty special year.