Not a creature was stirring, especially not Mags.

On Christmas Eve (while daddy was balled up in our bed with the flu) Maggie and I checked the Internet (NORAD) to see where Santa was. Well, he was somewhere in Africa. When I showed Mags how close he was to the "water" (aka Atlantic Ocean) and how we were just on the other side, she immediately decided she wanted to go to bed. It was 5:30 pm. We had not eaten dinner, had dessert- which I had just let them pick out since our annual Christmas Eve dinner with the Smiths was called off sue to illness- written our letter to Santa, put out cookies... you get it, we had not done any of the Christmas Eve prep that goes on when you have little ones. None of that mattered. Maggie was going to bed She ran up the stairs, brushed her teeth, threw on her Christmas jammies, which she previously refused to wear because she did not like the cut of them, but was too nervous to worry about that now, and was asleep by 5:45.

The rest of the girls were asleep by 8:00, but there is really no evidence of Christmas Eve night in our house. With Daddy being sick and Mags in bed.. well, the documentation just did not happen. Maura wrote a great note to Santa, making sure he knew that she had not one, but two teeth under her pillow. We fed Santa and the reindeer. We said goodbye to the elf. We read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas. And then all was quiet... for ten minutes. Then the hard work began. The tooth fairy was nice enough to write a nice letter to Maura and leave Fairy dust. Santa also wrote a few letters, one for the teeth, one for the cookies. The elf had to too. Boy, they should have thought about writing them a little sooner, so as not to have to do it all in one night. The presents appeared, by that time daddy was able to get out of bed and help Santa carry the larger items... like the three story doll house! And then 9:23 came along and all was quiet again. It's a Wonderful Life was watched by the fire light. Wine was poured (for me, not sicky) and it hit me... Life Really is Good... real good!