Happiness, Day.... However Many Today Is

Going to a friend's Christmas Eve party tonight, which was raucous and full of screaming children and the shuffling of multiple dishes in and out of the stove at random times and temperatures, people coming and going, a frenzy of gift-unwrapping, too many desserts, and more chaos than I've ever seen in one place....

That wasn't the true happiness.

The happy part was when my friend's middle daughter - six years old, and my favorite of her three kids (because I'm not family, I'm allowed to have favorites; and besides, the baby is too small to notice and the oldest girl is too cool to notice me) climbed, tired and grumpy and over-sugared, into my lap and fell asleep as I sang her Christmas carols. While I have no interest in having my own children, there's something sweet and kind of magical about being trusted and loved that implicitly. And... while I can't make myself sing in front of an audience, children don't trigger that kind of stage fright in me.

I'm home now, enjoying the dual holiday miracles of my last gifts to my husband arriving with the evening's last UPS delivery and the original, One True 'Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory' being on the air. The tree is lit, I have cinnamon stick tea, and most of my holiday gifts and cookies have been delivered.

Today is a good day.