Merry Christmas!

To all of our loved ones, we wish you a very merry Christmas. On this very special and sacred day, we wish you a wonderful day and a peaceful new year. We are so grateful to have you in our lives.

We were a bit surprised to see snow falling when we woke up this morning. A white Christmas in Seattle - really! No kidding! In fact, it snowed a good chunk of the day. It was gorgeous.

Eric's parents came over to celebrate the day with us. We ate the Olson family's traditional Christmas Breakfast casserole (yes, Eric, you were right ... we did need to double the recipe to have enough for leftovers) and played card games for quite a few hours. Even though I came in last place in all but one of the games, it was still lots of fun. We laughed and simply enjoyed spending time together.

It's funny how traditions become a topic of thought once children enter the picture. Before we had Annika, we didn't think much about them, but now we realize the importance of finding a balance between holding on to family traditions and starting new ones. Ones we've retained include the aforementioned Christmas Breakfast and going to mass on Christmas Eve. One of our new ones is reading "'Twas The Night Before Christmas" as a family before bed on Christmas Eve. As Annika gets older, we'll incorporate a few more of our longtime traditions, including leaving snacks for Santa, the reindeer, and the house nissen.

Merry Christmas to all .... and to all, a good night.