When you hold your child in your arms for the first time, you're hooked. You make a solemn vow that, if you do nothing else in your life but make this child happy, your life will not have been in vain.
At first, it is easy. Your child will spend joyful hours just looking at their hand.
As time progresses, the times of joy get fewer. Sometimes they only appear at birthdays and Christmas. Especially at Christmas, when they rush downstairs with the look of Christmas in their eyes, the look that says that "Today I am truly happy. I have found what will make my life complete."
As the years go by, this look of Christmas gets harder, and usually more expensive, to reproduce. Barbies and G.I. Joes get replaced by cars and prom dresses.
You start believing that you may never see that look of Christmas again. And then, one day, your child comes home and you see it again. When Mark first introduced me to Sharon, I saw it in Mark's eyes when he looked at Sharon and in Sharon's eyes when she looked at Mark.
This look has magic in it. It doubles all of your joys and divides your sorrows in two. It says that as long as you love each other, your lives will be complete.
So, I offer this toast...
May your life be surrounded by love. May your dreams become your reality, and most of all, when you look into each other's eyes may you always see Christmas.
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