Christmas Day... The house fills with lovely smells as the turkey cooks. The pies baked earlier, and the green bean casserole and sweet potatoes are still waiting to enter the oven. We always eat late on Christmas, but nobody minds, because we are spending some blessed family time. Mom and dad aren't working today, though they slept very late, since they were finishing the latest issue of Practical Homeschooling magazine last night. That's always nice. It adds peace to the house not to have dashings from upstairs to downstairs and loud conversations through the speaker phone - especially on a combined Sunday and Christmas. So we will probably watch a Christmas movie in a little bit, after we read the Christmas story. Right now, my oldest brother has left his own computer spot in his bedroom to join in a board game on the kitchen table. I'm reading Gone With the Wind, as I have been for a few days now (hey, it's a long book!), but I'm doing so in the living room instead of down in my "cave." Everything feels warm and cozy, even in the middle of our messy home, with large stacks of shipping boxes and review samples of homeschool products in the center of the living room. I do love my family.  ¶ 3:42 PM