Two more sleeps til Christmas day

The Christmas tree is always sparkly, from the moment we wake up until the moment we go to bed. The most amazing part is that it’s our Christmas tree, in our apartment, and we are finally celebrating Christmas together.
There is something about that that’s made this Christmas season more magical than it’s been in years.

Our best friends are flying in from California; Ryan’s sister & her husband are flying in from Florida; my aunt & uncle are having a port/wine/cider party this evening.

There are presents under the tree (though only half of them are wrapped). I’ll wrap up in warm scarves & gloves will cover my red&green sparkly nails on every trip into the cold, hopefully-snow-free outside. We will watch A Muppet Christmas Carol, and listen to Christmas music, and I will try my best not to get dragged along to midnight mass (the problems of marrying into a Catholic family), and everything is going to be wonderful and beautiful and magical.

I had my students’ recitals this week. It’s amazing how much they love me. So many parents told me that their children are practicing more this year and loving it more this year and they wanted to thank me personally for that. A couple students heard me say that I might not be here next year and they almost started crying; parents offered to drive out to keep taking lessons with me if I was still in the area. One family brought me flowers.
And as for photography… there is nothing that can top the feeling of getting a text from a client who just received her album — my very first album, so I was very nervous — that says, “LAURA! IT’S BEAUTIFUL!!!”

Needless to say, my life is wonderful, & full of lovejoyhappywarmcozy feelings. I hope your Christmas season is just as bright and wonderful, just as full as family & friends, as mine.