December 20

It was a nice day: coffee with a friend, then a doctor's appointment for Brady (which ended with the welcome revelation that we can wait on having his tonsils removed... for now), then a quick child-requested stop at Target, where I found a hard-to-find item for which another friend had been looking. (Remember the guy who gifted me the Hot Wheels Corvette? I found a car he hadn't been able to find but wanted. I love being able to offer up happy surprises, so I was pretty pleased to find it.) Then this evening, we drove around town to look at Christmas lights.

Although it was chilly out, we got out of the car to wander around one of the more impressive displays. In addition to an impressive front yard, these particular people fill their backyard with the most incredible menagerie of lights, light-up animals, animated creatures, dolls, you name it, they have it. It was fun to walk along with our family, but especially with Brady, who oohed and aahed --literally-- over the bears and penguins and, well, pretty much all of it. More than once, I heard him draw in a sharp breath as he took in the brightly colored scenes, and more than once, it reminded me of his biggest brother's awestruck reaction to Santa so many years ago.

The unbridled, unashamed, refreshingly self unaware wonder of a child is an amazing gift.