Ho! Ho! Ho!

Tonight is the night in the Baxyard. The end of the innocence. It makes my heart ache and my stomach sick. When we moved to the Baxyard eight years ago, Davis, my baby, was a baby and I remember our first Christmas here like it was last Christmas. We had no furniture in our living room, but a huge tree, that, in Baxyard fashion, fell over at least once.

Tonight is the first of many difficult, emotional conversations we are going to have to have with Davis. As I said to Dave the other night when we were discussing this, "The physical exhaustion part of parenting is behind us, our girls are 5 1/2, Davis is 9 1/2 - but the emotional exhaustion is just beginning." And though I am truly looking forward to all the fun things we get to do with older children that we couldn't do with babies...I am still sad.

So what is this you are wondering. Well, it would be terrible to spell it out here for fear I would ruin it for someone else - but it involves a man, in a red suit, "dressed all in fur from his head to his foot." Yes, in the car the other day, Davis mentioned that his friends had told him differently. He didn't directly ask me and thank God, I was not prepared. Not to mention Eden and Clara were in the back seat. Yikes! Though I am sure they would have heard nothing over their screaming rendition of Taylor Swift's newest single.

Anyway - you catch my drift. So, I am making Davis' favorite gingersnap cookies, I have lots of milk on hand and Dave and I and Davis will sit at the table like grownups, eat cookies and milk and talk about ... you know who. Wish us luck!

Photo from Christmas 2008