We’re cleaning the main floor of our home in anticipation of our Christmas dinner tomorrow night. This Christmas Eve, we’re having our traditional Italian dinner at my parents’ house. One year, they had like five entrees, so thank God for stretch denim, among many other things. Like a family I don’t need to run from or fend off at holiday time.

This is the runner-up photo for our 2005 holiday cards, the “100% Child Abuse-Free” edition. You have to click on it to see Aaron actually smiling instead of crying; sorry but I couldn’t get flickr to cooperate and send a photo that fits my blog frame. Santa, won’t you bring me some technical prowess this year?

I have one friend right now just beginning what she suspects to be an infertility journey, and another smack in the middle of a very high-risk pregnancy (not to mention my dear blogging friend, Cecily). And here I am, with three boys that came to us so easily. I count those blessings daily, even on the hard days. And my biggest wish for my friends and readers in the trenches is that they be similarly blessed.