As I was editing images from Christmas today I was amused by my daughter (my little mini me with her little mini me).  She is a big spirited young lady.  Who flies through life head first.  While there are many benefits to this type of personality . . . life of the party, cheery, fun to be around, up for adventure.  There are also drawbacks.  For example lately in our house she is like a little tornado (sweetest tornado you ever met however).  You can tell where she has been by the messes she leaves around the house.  She is also constantly hurting herself by running into things (she gets her grace or lack of from her mother).  So as I was going through the images from Christmas morning, and looking at the huge smile on her face while her body is at an angle, feet not fully on the ground; I felt like I had seen this before.  So I went back to find as many similar images of her on the same day of the year, December 25th (Christmas Morning).  And I had a similar image almost every year (some how I missed taking pics of the kids coming down the stairs a couple years, and super sadly to say I can't even find pictures of the first two years.  But as you can see in the first picture she isn't running down the stairs, as it was in our old house and the stairs were in another room.  Then in 2011 she is too adorable to handle peering over the rail of the stairs.  We skip to 2015 where in her excitement she passes up the gifts Santa has brought her by the tree and heads towards the fireplace to check out what was in her stocking, at full speed, so quick the camera can't even focus on her.  2016 leaving her brother in the dust.  2017 is very similar to this year, body angled, feet barely hitting the ground, huge smile of joy and excitement on her face.  These are the memories I'm so glad I have to look back on and treasure!  Last year, 2018, she's running in with a look of shock that Santa came through again!  And this past Christmas, 2019, the sheer intensity of what's going to be waiting for her from Santa you can see all over her face, while body still angled as though it might fall over, the momentum is the only thing stopping her from crashing.  I love looking back at my sweet girl.  She has changed so much over the years (check it out), gotten taller and lost those sweet chubby baby cheeks, but one thing remains the same.  Her excitement for life, so much so that she literally flies through life like a sweet, happy, energetic super human.

So I write this to not only share the joy I had today while going through pictures of one of my favorite human beings, but also to encourage you to take more pictures.  These were taken with my camera, but of course you can use your cell phone.  And then after you take those pictures, print them out!  Life flies by way too quickly and the only way we can hold on is to be able to look back and take in those moments that went by so fast and take a minute to savor the emotion, love and moments in time we have frozen in time in pictures.