Christmas, while still a religious holiday in which we celebrate the birth of Jesus the Christ, has always been a family affair in my life. For good or for bad, when I think of Christmas I think of family first and church activities second. There is a joy in giving gifts, of seeing someone's face light up when you get them something they want. The joy is especially great when it's a child's face breaking at the seams with excitement. We'll have to wait a little while for that, not because Emma doesn't get excited — there are many pictures to prove Emma's face is nearly stuck in a perpetual state of happy-happy-joy-joy-oh-boy-am-I-excited — but at her age Christmas was more about family than it was about presents and toys, with one exception: foil tissue paper and gift bags make the best toys!

Emma's trip down to California with us had three purposes. The most obvious one was to celebrate Christmas. We also wanted to show Emma off to Holly's family and friends and get a chance for Holly to catch up with folks, and to introduce Emma to the other side of her family. It's both amazing and sad that many hundreds of mile separate Emma from her extended family. It's amazing in that we can travel so far in so little time, compared to hundreds of years ago, and yet sad because even with our speedy travel it's still cost prohibitive to do it too often. I often wonder what kind of relationship Emma will have with her family in light of video conferencing across the Internet. It is our fervent hope that Emma will know both sets of grandparents quite well.

One thing about grandmas and grandpas that has probably always been true: when you are with grandma and grandpa the rules are different. Knowing this, and knowing that Emma's schedule and normal routine would be next to impossible to maintain we decided not to fret about how and when things happened. If Emma decided she didn't want to take a nap we didn't force her, and if she wanted to stay up later and play with the grown-ups we indulged. Emma loved it. She still got exhausted and slept quite well, but when she was awake she was out in and amongst the family giggling, waving her toys about, and staring at all the new faces. She especially enjoyed laughing at her great uncle Richard who gladly made funny faces.

When Emma's cousin Irie arrived we were ready for all manner of cuteness and they didn't disappoint. They are different children in their temperament and the way they interact with other people. Many times Irie would reach out a hand to gently touch Emma, obviously curious about her, and Emma would sit there oblivious, looking the other way, up into the face of someone. We even caught a few pictures of Irie tugging on Emma's ear and Emma doesn't seem to either notice nor care.

We caught a glimpse of what life might be like once Emma figures out how to stand up. Oh my it will be filled with new things for Mom to worry about an a list of chores for Dad. I figure anything knee high will be bolted to the floor and wrapped in seven layers of thick foam. It'll be the largest padded playground a kid could ever want out of. It was quite a treat to see another little girl, and one only six weeks older than Emma. Six weeks in the life of a baby is a lot of developmental time, to think, Emma could be learning to crawl and stand in as little as two more weeks. . . .

One thing I remember about Christmas still holds true today into my adulthood: it's over sooner than you want it to be. Whether you are looking for more presents under the tree, wishing you didn't have to go back to school (or work), or just sad to see all the people go back to their lives, Christmas always seems to be a lot of blessing crammed into a ridiculously short period of time. Even though we had a week down in California it only felt like a few days.

One more Christmas in the history books and another one that centered around family relationships. Emma got to meet her cousin, we got to met our niece, Emma was introduced to more family than she knew what to do with, and memories were made. It will be remembered as the year two girls celebrated their first Christmas, and played tug-of-war with a piece of foil tissue paper. With so many miles separating us all, who knows when we'll be together again.