My Proudest Moment

Before heading to the great white north we opened Christmas presents with my family. We decided that the last present we wanted to reveal to Hadley would be the Thomas the train set we had got for her because we knew that once she saw it she wouldn't want anything to do with the other gifts.

Hadley had met with Santa twice and on both occasions she asked for Thomas. When the big day arrived we opened up all of her presents downstairs and she was thrilled with her new gifts. After a while everyone slipped upstairs to her bedroom where Thomas had been setup (it took me nearly two hours to get the stupid thing put together). Hadley was riding around on her new scooter in the kitchen and I went over to her and asked her what she had asked Santa for Christmas. She immediately said, "a scooter!" I reminder her that there was actually something else that she had asked for and after a couple of minutes of thought she remembered that Thomas was actually the gift she had pleaded for.

With a touch of sadness in her voice but with real sincerity she then said, "It's all right, it's all right." I couldn't have been prouder of my little two-year-old. She was grateful for what she had received and seemed to have a hint of Christmas in her heart.

I immediately said, "Let's go upstairs. There is something that mommy and daddy got for you that is in your room." I don't believe there was a happier parent or child on Christmas day when she saw Thomas and all of his friends sitting in her room. She didn't eat or play with anything else for the next three hours.