Scenes from Little Christmas

It was, as promised, the most joyful madness and mayhem, first known in that manger in Bethlehem.

Those are two of my most favorite presents. Made me weep. I loved how Mackie sort of hovered over me as I opened my present, delighted by my delight and surprise.

When I started to weep, she put her hand on my shoulder, like such a wise and loving person, and just smiled sweetly - as if to say "That's just what I thought you would do, Nana, when Mommy and I bought it for you."

I'm not going to bore you by posting all the pictures, but here are a few:

I love it when a few of my favorite people gather in private conversation.  Just catching up, with Santa listening closely.

You can't see that table in the background - the one in front of the Christmas tree - but it has a beautiful tile made by one of our daughters and her beau.  It's a 'Celtic tree" design.  Just lovely.

Ms Conroy with our youngest grandchild "M3".

They had been looking out the kitchen window, watching the birdies at the bird feeder.  He studied them for a long while and finally said, "Boidies!" in his husky, very all-boy voice.

Most of his day was spent walking round and round and round again - from the living room, through the kitchen, into the dining room and back into the living room where he always seemed delighted to find us all again.   He would take in and enjoy the view, stopping to munch on a fist full of fruit or crackers or cookies, and then start his journey again.

Isn't he a cutie patootie?  I'm so absolutely in love with this child it makes my heart sing.

We had a little trouble fitting everyone into our wee rectory, but we made it work.  We always do.  Then again, there were seventeen of us.  Not an easy fit in any household.

It's a little like  "Rehoboth" - the reported name of King David's palace, built on the side of the hill overlooking Jerusalem where his many wives and children and army lived -  one translation for which is "room for one more."

It didn't even seem to matter that the Patriots played so poorly that no one even bothered to go downstairs to the family room to watch.  They just checked their Blackberries every now and again and groaned.

And here are some of my most favorite people on the planet.

All five of the Grandbeauties.

The real Christmas miracle was that there was absolutely not one fight or squabble or disagreement among them.  Not one.  They all seemed so delighted to be with each other that bad behavior was simply not on the agenda.

The other Christmas miracle is that the parents of the Girl Cousins gave us permission to take all three of the girls on a "Double Sleepover" so we can go into Manhattan.

We'll do all stops on the "Little Girl" scene - Radio City Music Hall, F.A.O. Schwartz, and, of course, the American Girl Doll Store.   We're all so excited we can hardly sit still.

We'll take the Boy Cousins and their dads to a Newark Bears game this summer.  Always fun.

I love Christmas, but Little Christmas is my absolute favorite day on the calendar.

Can you tell?