If Every Day Could Be This Precious

She crept into my lap, wrapping her arms around my waist, nuzzling my heart with wispy uncombed hair.  "Mommy, mine.... Family stay together, forever."

She talks like that sometimes; in shorthand.  It's like her cutesy baby talk.  She cocks her head like a cat and waits to be cuddled and petted.

Today was a long day.  We stayed home cleaning and setting up the Christmas tree.  At four we went to wait at the bus stop for Kaio and started a game of hide and seek.  I hid behind a skinny tree and she spotted my leg sticking out immediately.  When she ran over to tag me no painter could paint a face that pretty, no musician compose a song as beautiful as her laughter.  When she hid, I pretended to not see her and she let the giggles out to give herself away.

The bus pulled up and she jumped in my arms with excitement over our little man getting home.  He skipped off the bus first and ran to us in a big group hug, planting a kiss right on my lips.  Nala turned to him and kissed his cheek.  He kissed me again.  "Mom, can we go decorate the Christmas tree now?"

"Yes we can!"

I love saying yes.  

We stopped at the quail cage.  I'm teaching Kaio to take over the job of feeding them.  Mari and I leave on a mini vacation next week and I know my mom doesn't want to deal with the birds.  Kaio lifted the door up and propped it open with a garden fence rod.  He carefully took out their long narrow feeder and struggled a bit to open the hinge.  It finally popped open and he walked to the plastic tub of food, took a big scoop full with our big magenta scoop, and began to pour the crumbles in the feeder.  The problem was he poured everything in one spot and food overflowed onto the deck.  I led his arm to the left, showing him how to distribute the feed evenly across the length of the feeder, so as not to spill. 

In the house we continued where we left off yesterday with the Christmas tree.  This meant stringing the lights to She and Him Christmas music, and Nala loved it.  She loved it so much that she repeated, "I love this, I love this, I love this."  over and over with a huge smile.  

Yesterday night our neighbors knocked on the door while were moving Christmas decorations inside from the garage.  They brought us a holiday tin and invited us to an event at their church.  After they left we went in the kitchen and opened the tin.  Inside were two batches of home-baked chocolate chip cookies.  All three of us spontaneously broke out into a "yay!" shouting happy dance.  We finished off the last of the prior week's raw milk delivery, saving some cookies for daddy and Santa.