A Belknap Christmas

After we returned from the Kruegers’ on Christmas Eve, the kids donned their Christmas pajamas.  We followed our tradition of scattering reindeer dust, setting out the milk and cookies for Santa, and reading The Night Before Christmas (Halfway through the book, Abby excitedly declared, “Mama, it really is the night before Christmas!”).

Unsurprisingly, many aspects of this Christmas were different.  My mom and the puppies spent the night on Christmas Eve, and we hosted the Christmas meals - brunch, midafternoon dinner, and a light supper – at our house.  It was important to enjoy the traditional foods, a link to past Christmases and precious memories of my dad.  I think this was comforting to all of us, rather than upsetting.  The hardest part of the day was watching a video Mark had made of our most recent beach trip.  He did an amazing job compiling the many hours of footage taken with his GoPro.  Of course, we had no idea how meaningful that trip would turn out to be and seeing video footage of my dad brought many tears.    

Mark also played photographer for Christmas Day.  All I can say is, “Wow!”