January 8

This morning we all got up, loaded into the car, and took Abby to the airport for her return flight to Chicago.

We didn't do anything special during break, per se. We went to church and shopped and put up Christmas decorations and drove around to look at others' light displays and shopped and made cookies and played board games and opened gifts and watched movies and shopped (although I guess I already mentioned that last one). 

It was, in summation, a regular old break at home.

But you know something? It was amazing because we were here together, in our house, just being. And I know it was amazing because scenes like this one don't play out unless something amazing has taken place; we don't grieve separation from people with whom we don't share deep connections.

So the next time you're tempted to feel like you don't do anything extraordinary, remember that just being with people we love is the true "special" stuff of this life.