Peaceful Christmas Night

It's past 2am on Christmas night. Art is sleeping. As I was about to get into the cozy bed myself, I felt like I had some kind of unfinished business. And then I remembered, that I really had wanted to have us all watch some old family videos tonight. Or perhaps do a sort of slideshow, like we used to, to that one song Somewhere In My Memory. I think that set of slides exists somewhere, set to change pictures every few seconds to the words of that song. Anyways, just wanted to put that thought out there, and perhaps we can get together for something like that on another night like New Years or something.

It's so crazy. I feel that our family is closer than we have ever been before. I had the most wonderful and lovely Christmas today. I loved everything about the whole day. I love so much the new additions to our family. I am IN LOVE with our beautiful family, all of it. But I also feel as though we are more stressed than ever too. Maybe it's just the day and age, or maybe it's just ME getting old? Maybe it's just the late 2000's versus the early 90's? Whatever it is, I just remembered the old Christmases and how we would watch the slides and I want to do that again. I don't think that we barely had a moment to just CHILL, all of us together today. Later, when Art and I left Heather's I noticed how sweet it was to see everyone cuddled up together playing Nintendo DS, painting, playing games, just hanging out. But there is so much more stimulus these days for sweet ol family moments to compete with.....and I kind of think it would be so great to just sit around and all just CHILL together. We got to just MAKE it happen. Just to sit around and talk to each other and watch old family homevideos and laugh and not have any other games or distractions ( like that's possible we are the beattys) from the outside computery world and just hold all of our souls together in one room for a moment in time and appreciate the beauty and the rarity of our situation. Which is, being so lucky to be healthy and alive and in the ever awe-inspiring presence of each other as human beings. Just to laugh at old crazy moments caught on tape, and to tell stories of our own pasts, and to just peace out.

I don't want anyone to think I am not completely in LOVE with the way today went. I am. I am just suggesting this as a ....suggestion. Cause I love love, and I love you all, and I just want to BE around you all and tell stories and sit together and drink Martinelli's and cider and wine and just have a good ol' peaceful time.

Thank you for being the most amazing people I ever met. I mean, that even includes Joey's little stints of (how is it that Amy and Matt put it) buckys? and the crying outbursts and the fits of joy and the screaming of everyone at the same time and the forevercalmness of Amy and the foreverexcitement of whoknowswhatisgoingon at the Beatty households. I love you all. I love IT all. All of our wonderful and sweet madness and love. I know we are crazy, but we got lots of love.

It would be pretty easy to make a slideshow of my old christmas SLIDESHOW on youtube, to the song Somewhere in my Memory. Maybe Dad can help me put all the slides onto the computer and I can make the same thing digitally and post it on our blog!. .......or ....I could just drag all of you AND the old stand-up slidescreen into a living room with the slide projector and plug it in and set up a stereo and an Ipod and do it the old fashioned way.....isn't that what Christmas is kind of all about? Traditions are awesome too. But in the meantime, here's the same song to someone else's little slideshow. I love you my dear family.