As I piled the gifts by recipient, I began to think I had gone overboard. Alexis' pile kept growing taller and taller. I knew I couldn't blame Mr. Husband for the excess; I had purchased most of the items. When the pile grew to be taller than the kid, I started to kick myself for being one of those parents. One who did the whole excess thing.

But, as the kid gleefully started to unwrap things, I slowly remembered that I hadn't been totally out of my mind. There was the Sleeping Beauty costume I picked up at the Disney Store after Halloween for a whopping $15. Several gifts were individually wrapped dollhouse accessories; I spent a total of $35 on the entire lot of them. There were a few t-shirts, a pair of pajamas, and a few Christmas ornaments.

As Alexis unwrapped the very last thing, I started to think I hadn't done enough. Of course she still had some Santa things to unwrap, but there really wasn't much. There were no electronic toys. There were no high-priced items. It was a series of small items that had been wrapped to appear to be much more.

As Alexis surveyed the meager pile, she proclaimed, "This is the best Christmas ever!"

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I never did manage to get all the Christmas decorations out.

I had enough ornaments to start a new tree, but apparently now that retailers start putting out Christmas stuff before the 4th of July, you can't actually buy anything once December rolls around. By then, it has all been replaced by Valentine's Day crap.

Many of the outdoor decorations were an electrical failure of epic proportions. Although, that doesn't really explain why the giant wreath is sitting in the dining room instead of hanging on the window. There's really no good explanation for that. Nor is there a good explanation for where the heck my white glitter reindeer that belong on the dining room table might be hiding. They HAVE to be in the house somewhere, right?

One evening, as I surveyed the piles of stuff that really should have been put on display, I realized that Alexis was standing in front of one of the trees watching the motion ornaments do their thing. As the Tigger and Rabbit tugged back and forth on a stuck Winnie the Pooh, Alexis turned to me and said, "This is the best Christmas ever!"

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Every year I morph into a Domestic Goddess for a few days as I bake a ton of cookies. We can't really afford to buy gifts for everyone we think should be on our list, so tins of homemade confections fill the gap. I take the process very seriously, always making sure to make a few more complicated recipes. After all, Christmas just isn't Christmas without a pile of star-shaped Linzer cookies.

This year, I knew time was short. I decided it was time to keep things simple and avoid any recipes that would take more than an hour to complete. I incorporated a few new recipes into the mix, but the Linzers were out. There was no time for cookie cutters and such.

As I compiled various cookies into various tins, mourning the lack of pretty stars on top, Alexis sat munching on a giant portion of Puppy Chow. As she shoveled the stuff into her face, she turned to me and said, "Momma, this is the best Christmas ever!"

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I'm grateful to have a little someone in the house who constantly reminded me that although Christmas wasn't quite perfect this year, it was indeed the best Christmas ever.