Magic

We have a new member of our holiday celebrations. Buddy the Elf. After a couple years of begging, Daddy relented and said Santa could send us an elf. I think that has a lot to do with the knowledge that we are on the brink of magic changing for Issa. Right now, though, we are all still basking in the glow of Christmas magic straight from the North Pole.

Buddy was waiting for us when we arrived home from Thanksgiving, and Monday morning he was hanging from Issa's hair bows and had drawn a Santa hat and beard on the mirror for them to "wear" while they brushed their teeth.

Yesterday morning, he left us sugar seeds with instructions to plant them in a bowl of sugar:

I mentioned that I thought we could eat the extra seeds, but the kiddos wisely thought we should wait and see what they grew into first.

They were so excited, but not quite as excited as when they realized the seeds had grown into candy canes overnight. They even checked for the seeds in the sugar, but sure enough: the seeds had transformed. I thought it was safe to eat the extra seeds, but the kids reminded me that the candy canes were wrapped, which means the hard shell on the seed must be plastic. I have such good thinkers.

I love the magic of all of this. I love seeing their faces light up in the morning. I love hearing them giggle and puzzle things out. I love that we are writing pages of their storybooks again this Christmas, and that is the greatest magic of all.