Page 65 of Blame It On the Lattes

She rushed over to the box and immediately looked for the name tag, even though she couldn’t read much of it. We were practicing, but she would definitely learn more once she started kindergarten, and we could focus on it daily.

“What does it say?” she asked, looking up at me. “It has different wrapping paper, so it has to be from Santa, right?”

I grinned, loving how Sam had had the idea to wrap it in a different wrapping paper than any of the other gifts. He insisted that anything from Santa needed that specific wrapping paper, then we would hide what was left so she didn’t see it.

“It saysto Kennedy from Santa,” I said, pointing to each word.

“Oh my gosh!” She covered her mouth with her hands and looked from the present to me, then back to the box.

“Well, go on and open it!” I encouraged as Sam sat in the recliner and recorded her on his phone.

I helped her as needed, tossing the box to the side once the dollhouse was fully unwrapped. She squealed and jumped up and down excitedly as she thanked Santa over and over. Her happiness made my heart full.

We moved the dollhouse to the side so we could continue opening presents, though we had to promise her that she’d have plenty of time to play with it before we went to lunch at Sam’s parent’s house. It was a busy day, and I felt a bit nervous to go to dinner with him tonight because it was at his friend’s bar, and I hadn’t had the time to really get to know anyone yet. Cassidy had asked if she could keep Kennedy for a few hours tonight while we went, and I knew it was more for Sam and me to have some alone time on Christmas than anything. But I appreciated it nonetheless.

The gifts were opened in record time, both Sam and I smiling the whole time as Kennedy continued to freak out over how amazing her presents were. Sam had gotten some stuff we hadn’t talked about, but I couldn’t be mad at how much he loved my daughter. This was just the beginning of a life filled with more love and happiness than I could have ever imagined.

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