Woke up to a Chicago newsletter in my email inbox telling me where we can toss our Christmas trees out in the city and I kinda want to leave a bad review. Ha.

THE SUN IS NOT EVEN UP AND YOU’RE TRYING TO RID ME OF MY TREE?

No thank you.

We are going to prolong our cozy Christmas feels for as long as possible.

Besides, Santa just delivered the rest of the grandparents to Chicago, so we gotta celebrate Christmas for a few more days.

Speaking of which, it was the most fun watching Ishu go completely speechless when they showed up in the lobby. He thought he was running down to pick up one more package from Santa and then, SURPRISE! Out come Dadi and Babaji wearing Santa hats.

He had zero words.

And when the words finally did come out, they were, “It was better than a cool thing.” And when asked if it was a good surprise, he responded with, “It was 100 good.”

So, we think that was Ishu trying to convey just how excited he was about the grandparent surprise. But with limited vocabulary because he was still sort of in shock.

It was so fun to wake up Christmas morning with these two little monkeys. Ishu, of course, slept in ’til past 8:30 (which NEVER EVER EVER HAPPENS IN THE HISTORY OF ALL TIME). When he did finally wake up, we heard him say, “YESSSSSSSSS,” run over to the sound machine to turn it off, and raced out to the living room to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. (Riyu got the first kiss, of course).

Ishu got exactly what he asked for: a chameleon stuffed animal and light-up shoes (which, BTW, he had written an addendum letter to Santa clarifying that he wanted his light-up shoes to make him go really fast). He also got a Danny Go aviator hat. But I think his favorite gift (that wasn’t his grandparents showing up) was actually a non-Santa gift. Nikku Chacha got him a keyboard and he spent the rest of the day cycling through the 3-4 songs he knows, asking everyone if they could guess if he was playing major keys or minor keys.

It’s been a special couple of days, watching this big kid experience all the magic that happens around the holidays.

Beyond the gifts showing up and Santa passing out parcels.

In the smaller ways. Of people getting together, cooking for one another, gathering around a long table, kids and adults going from strangers to friends in one night.

It all feels like magic to me.

So, no. I’m not ready to toss out my Christmas tree quite yet.

I’d like to sit in this feeling for just a bit longer. 🙂

Hope you all are having a very special holiday season and spending time with the people you love!