Not crying at Christmas

I'm not gonna lie or sugar coat it-Christmas is hard for me. Mom would always go shopping with me on Black Friday and as much as I love my husband-he's not the shopper my mom was. There were times, we couldn't get together to make Christmas cookies, but I'd put the phone on speaker and we'd jabber away making them anyway. I thought I'd roped Lauren into being my helper for Christmas cookies, but school and work keep her from helping as much as we'd like-gotta give it to her the girl is an oreo ball queen. Seriously, we did a whole batch in less than 15 minutes. Most of that time was letting them get cool in the freezer. Then, Christmas cards come and I remember Mom racing Stacia to get them in the mail first. But these days, I remember and laugh because there were so many really good times to remember.
Now I can stress out as to where I put everything-I think I found it all. Stayed within budget(a Christmas miracle). Once again, I didn't order enough Christmas cards and lost some addresses-so consider yourself lucky if you got one.It was too humid to make pralines-and come to find out two of my three biological kids hate pecans anyway. Grinch punch was cute, but strong enough to give me a hangover(come to think of it so did the egg nog the next night).
Things go wrong-they always do, but I got to see all the kids and we shared some laughter. I'm still struggling to take a picture of my fish-he's a beautiful black dragon named Harley (thanks Lauren) so you won't see a picture of him here today. Instead:

This is Miss Priss. Once all the presents were unwrapped, I was told to close my eyes and the kids led me outside. She's a Christmas present to me from them.
Seriously. Aren't parents supposed to surprise the kids?
I didn't cry, even though I thought about it. I just bit my lip real hard and reminded myself that if I started, I probably wouldn't be able to stop. Not sad tears, but Happy ones. There's not a thing in the world I need-but feeling the love that's the most precious gift of all and when you keep getting it-in massive amounts.
Well... it's enough to bring tears to your eyes.