Whew!

The last of the kids left about noon today, and thanks to Linda, my house is about back to normal. Though it's nice to have a little peace and quiet, I'm going to miss the hustle and bustle of Christmas and the days surrounding it.

I'm going to miss turning on every lamp, every lighted house and every Christmas tree each morning with Walker. And I'm going to miss tripping over Tupperware and toys and finding monkey when I try to heat something in the microwave.

I'm going to miss having sippy cups in the refrigerator and fingerprints on the windows. I'm going to miss cooking eggies and bacon for breakfast and making "sun" butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch.

I'm going to miss having girls in the house. Girls will go shopping with you to places like Victoria's Secret, and they even enjoy having lunch with your friends.

Girls will offer to cook dinner and encourage their spouses to help, and they'll even clean up afterward. Girls will make sure you have stuff in your stocking and will buy you a card for your anniversary.

Girls will strip the sheets off the bed when it's time to leave and gather up the dirty towels and wash cloths and take them to the laundry room.

I'm also going to miss playing Joker until after midnight and spending hours searching for pieces of the jigsaw puzzle.

But mostly I'm going to miss having family around.