Merry Christmas from the Dumas household

Merry Christmas from Staff Writer Breck Dumas and husband, Sean! Bah humbug from our son, Drake.

After a disastrous first meeting with Santa last year (see photo above), we had high hopes for our only child's second shot at hitting it off with the big guy in 2019.

Drake was coached, conditioned, practically interrogated — time and again — over whether he wanted to go see Santa and what he might request at the moment of opportunity. Following a tantrum complete with wailing and gnashing of teeth, we ended up with a family photo per Santa's suggestion.

We should have known that Drake has not yet…how do I put this…learned to fully embrace the holiday spirit. The week prior, our two-year-old escape artist scaled his toy dresser overnight, hopped through an opening into the room adjoining his nursery, and found a doorknob lacking one of those pesky child-deterrent handles.

From there, it was chaos. The prisoner had escaped, while the wardens were fast asleep.

Sean was the first to be awakened by the disturbance: "He's up," I heard. In short time, the little ninja made his way through the baby gate, down the stairs, and into our bedroom. But, oh, nothing could have prepared me for what was left in his path of destruction.

Our 10-foot Christmas tree had been pushed over, ornaments strewn about, broken. All that matters, of course, is that Drake wasn't hurt. We picked up the shattered pieces and redecorated the tree, only for it to fall a second time when we tried to reset it with a more stable stand later in the day.

The remaining pile of twigs has now been fastened to the wall.

We should have seen that coming, too. Just days before, Drake threw all of the stockings that were hung from our staircase to more suitable positions on the floor. We now have stockings stacked by the chimney with care.

This year, Sean turned 40, and I turned God-only-knows-how-old.

Our house isn't tidy, but it's warm. It's scattered with toy machinery, but full of love. It's also, now, completely secure against any external OR INTERNAL threats, but open to welcome those we cherish.

We are thankful for our blessings, and grateful to you, dear readers.

To the readership of TheBlaze, I want to personally thank you for following, reading, sharing, sending tips, commenting on, critiquing, and every once in a while correcting my work. It is an honor to serve such an engaged audience, and incredibly fulfilling to write for an outlet committed to telling stories so often overlooked by the mainstream.

May God bless each one of you this Christmas, and throughout the coming New Year.