Do Reindeer Get Hernias?

If so I’m sure Santa’s team this year can be found at the North Pole urgent care today. Our Huazhou Wonders must have been very good this year judging from the ton of lovely presents that Santa left last night. The girls actually slept longer than we figured and poor Aa-Aa waited a good while outside in her jammies as I told her the girls were sure to be up by 6:30. She waited to come in until she saw lights inside which didn’t happen until around 7:30. Steven got there just in time for the chaos. The girls were just giddy with all their toys and though they kept an amazingly accurate tally of who got what, we were amazed how well they shared. If one picked up the other’s toy they would say, "That’s mine! You can play with it in a minute!" and in a minute they actually let the other one play. They were quite enamored of their kazoos and of their "golderemonicas" or harmonicas as the rest of the world calls them. After a bit of harmonica/kazoo action we had to wonder if perhaps there gifting was a sign that Mama and Baba had been added to Santa’s naughty list! Continuing the Christmas miracle from last night- Mary Clare actually got a blanket and covered up Margaret Rose’s baby doll. Instead of the video tape of her, I wish I had one of all of us staring at her with our mouths hanging open. Later in the morning she even played with Margaret Rose’s Barbie dolls! They both love the microphone – "Are you ready for my show?!" they took turns calling and we were treated to a holiday rendition of I’ve Been Working on the Railroad before they moved on to Jingle Bells and The Twelve Days of Christmas. There was quite a long pause in the present opening when the girls got to a marvelous musical gift from our dear friends the Hamiltons. It was a music box type mechanism that you turned by hand to get the Hundred Acre Wood animals to ring handbells. Mary Clare was particularly enchanted and enjoyed making it play a long time before deciding she had to know how it worked. We all had a great lunch ( Margaret Rose ate leftover lomein and Mary Clare ate sour cream) and continued the merrymaking well into the afternoon. The girls found Christmas cupcakes that Mom had gotten right as the sun was setting and had one last Christmas treat (Mary Clare eating the frosting and Margaret Rose eating the cake – aren’t they the perfect pair?) before collapsing from an overdose of Christmas joy before 7:00. Seeing my girls at Mass last night and in the throes of present pandemonium today has made this the best Christmas! We are so blessed to have them – as corny as it sounds they make everyday a little bit like Christmas.