comfort and

They ran past me a half hour ago, my children, the oldest whispering a bookmark, shhh. Carrying the Craft Bag, they locked themselves in the oldest's room, and all I've heard since is muffled voices, helping one another. I asked for a bookmark for Christmas, but what I'm getting is so much better: my children working together, cheerfully doing something for someone else.

joy
noun
1. Intense and especially ecstatic or exultant happiness.
2. The expression or manifestation of such feeling.
"joy." The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. Answers.com 18 Dec. 2005. http://www.answers.com/topic/joy