My condolences for all those that suffered through heartache this holiday season. In the spirit of Christmas cheer though, I wanted to share a happy story.

This is my first Christmas as a father. I personally always hated Christmas coming from a split family because there was always too much drama involved and it just reminded me of how messed up my family was. On top of that, I was always forced to wake up way earlier than I wanted to and sit around and wait for everyone. I always believed that it was supposed to be the happiest day of the year, so I should at least get to sleep in. Simply put, I never looked forward to Chirstmas.

This year, I started dreading it as I tried to balance the situation with the in-laws. This was their first Christmas with their daughter not at home. The just assumed we would go spend the night over there and do Christmas with them. I stuck to my guns though and made it clear we would be doing Christmas morning presents and breakfast at our house and all that wanted to come were welcome.

Finally, as Christmas drew closer, I was overwhelmed with the Christmas spirit. I don't know how many times I randomly paid for the person behind me in a drive through line because I was overcome with the spirit of giving. Christmas morning, we had planned on doing presents at 7 (Which really meant 7:30 as I expected everyone to be late) and then breakfast. I was awake at 6:30 with so much energy that I couldn't sit still. I kept peeking out the window to see if anyone had arrived, peeking in the twins' room to see if they were awake. Finally, once everyone was there and we had waiting about 5 minutes, I broke my golden rule and went and woke up the boys. They're usually up by then anyways, so I justified it.

Even though my boys obviously don't know the concept of Christmas and didn't even seem all that interested in ripping off the wrapping paper, it was the best experience I could have hoped for. I love that I have good holiday cheer now and I can't wait until next year when they understand it a bit more. Merry Christmas, I hope that all had a great holiday and I wish you all the best moving forward.