The Post Christmas Cocoon

Christmas comes with all its magic and wonder...warmth of family and friends all around you...and then it's over in a blink...and I fight being sad...really sad. Christmas is the fireworks at the end of the year...the days just go by so fast. I know everyone says that....but it's true. Every year I enter, and as a result my children enter a post Christmas cocoon. We Christmased so hard all month...and then for two or three days after Christmas has passed...we just....are. We just are.  We have been in our pajamas for almost three days now...taking baths just to put on a fresh pair.

 In our pajamas we have put together the rest of the gifts...like the Barbie dream house.

 We have put up new favorites that Christmas brought us this year but that we know we will treasure for the rest of our lives.....

 We put the memories of Christmas in our hearts and the decorations in boxes and totes...and found a beautiful, clean space...that we didn't even realized we missed until we saw it again.

 We napped, relaxed and watched movies....

 The boys played basketball games....and held tournaments...and they were amazing basketball stars!

 Justin Bieber Barbie and Fashion Fairytale Barbie got married at least ten times beneath the hot tub lights on the Barbie dream house...

 Lila popped in and out of her new fairy tent...and smiled her beautiful smile every time!

 We opened every new thing Christmas brought us and intermingled it with the old...just like the Barbie tote...where the old and new Barbies live together now... all the new stuff is a part of us and our lives now.

 We played with each other...and with Jack...and enjoyed not having to be anywhere or with anybody other than us....

 I soaked in every detail of these precious faces...and kissed them over and over...because I could.

I enter the post Christmas cocoon with sadness and emptiness, but I always come out revived...and feeling so in love with what I am blessed to have...and I think the kids feel this too....right here in this stairway Riggs called to me from the bottom of the steps...and when I came to the doorway...he just said.."Mom, I love you"...for no reason other than he wanted to...I love that the words I love you forever where right above his head.