Merry, Merry

Thirteen years ago, this was my family's Christmas card picture. Charlie was six, Maria was three and Jack was five months. Now they look completely different, in case you were wondering.



Photo by Khris Erickson

Looking at this makes me smile. Look how little and cute and chubby-cheeked they were! Not a one of them drove my car back then, much less into a mailbox, making a large gouge on the driver's side door. None of these little cherubs had ever received a bad grade in school. When this was taken, I hadn't yet gotten a phone call from a teacher complaining that one of my kids had called another child an "a$$hole" (you wouldn't think baby Jesus would say such a thing, even if the other kid had knocked him down, unprovoked). In this photo, they are the picture of childhood innocence and beauty.

And on that note, if you celebrate the day, I wish you a Merry Christmas. Bring on the figgy pudding!