Beautiful

We are in full holiday cheer mode around here. This year is totally different than last year- this year we "get" Christmas. We understand who Santa is and we believe it, we know what snowmen and carols and evergreen trees mean, and we get ridiculously excited to see our neighbors outdoor twinkle lights and yell, "Look Mom, Christmas!" every time we notice a new display.

My favorite moment so far has got to be the pink aluminum tree. We got Maggie her own little mini-tree from the craft store. I let her pick it out, so of course it's pink. It's very Charlie-Brown-esque, a spindly little thing. When we first got it we added our ornaments, all pink or purple and revolving around the theme of Princess Ballerina (like I said, we let her pick it out). I realized the next day that the tree needs some lights, how could we forget the lights? I went out and bought a way-too-long string of multicolored lights and asked Maggie to help me string up the tree. I turned out the bedroom lights and waited for a reaction, and here's what I got... "Ohhhh, Mom, it's beautiful!" in a quiet, breathy, awed sort of way.

Not pretty, not shiny, not cute, it's BEAUTIFUL. Big word for a big girl, I didn't even know she knew that word. I love Christmas.