Never Forget This Day.

Never forget this day.

That is what I am thinking to myself in these few minutes past midnight.

I never want to forget this day and how I feel at this moment.

How much fun I had with my family today,

how much I love to see us all together.

I want to remember taking the boys to the "Jump House" and finding that it was over capacity.

Instead of falling apart or melting down, Chris suggested ice skating.

We did that and it was fun and it was perfect.

Then we went to the grocery store and got what the kids had picked for "Wacky Dinner Night."

Kate chose Fruit by the Foot, Chris chose ice cream (and he's such a peacekeeper that he chose Neapolitan so that everyone could have a flavor they liked) and Trey chose a dozen donuts from Dunkin Donuts.

I want to remember going to the Midnight at Seven celebration for the first time.

Eating plates of hot pasta in a heated tent,

then starting to walk through the light display, while our breath puffed clouds in the air.

I never want to forget putting a blanket down in the grass and dirt, right there in the middle of all the lights that we have driven through every Christmas Eve since Kate was a toddler.

We lay on the blanket and watched fireworks rain down on us in blinding flashes of color.

The loud BOOMS mingled with our gasps of wonder and delight.

It was incredible and quite honestly, tucked in this pack of children that my husband and I created, it felt holy.

I don't want to forget finishing our walk through the lights,

the kids wearing Happy New Year hats, blowing noise makers and whirling little clickety-clack doohickeys.

I want to remember playing Bananagrams at the table while enjoying a late-night Wacky Dinner,

followed by wild, energy-burning Ripstick and Razor trike races in the basement.

I want to remember a never-ending game of Trouble in the den while watching the last hour before the ball dropped.

And I never, ever want to forget the ball dropping, and running outside with noisemakers and pots and spoons, cheering and ushering in the New Year with the four people on this planet that I love the most.

Everything about this day was perfect and right.

I never want to forget this day.