These days, this week, in what could be a furry of doing before the big day – we are doing as little as we can. The rain has brought all of us to a slowdown on this late (now yesterday) afternoon. I am enjoying a mama’s treat of a coffee and Baileys (again) while the girls quietly play school, that was sparked by bringing an old kid’s desk up from the basement for my middle girl.
She asked Santa for “my own desk.” Bringing up the old one was my solution to that request and a movement towards my efforts to pair down this year, to buy less gifts and have less stuff to manage in the house. She was thrilled to have a place for her own scissors, paper, glue and pencils. I love when it’s the simple things that make us happy.
The rest of their Santa presents have been wrapped. For the next two days and evenings, post bedtime, I will be sewing and making gifts for them that they know were done just for them, with thought and love by me.
Other presents are going under the tree as they get wrapped this year. In them are snow gear for our upcoming trip to Colorado to visit my brother’s family who live/work in a ski town. It is a gift I hope the girls will recognize as a gift of experience versus a gift of stuff.
I think they get it. Yesterday we took a trip to East Tennessee Children’s Hospital to donate unopened birthday presents from two weeks ago. For my middle girl, the big exciting gift was a party with 19 of her friends. So when the gifts still sat unopened, I explained that we could donate them to children who were in the hospital on Christmas day. And that the nurses would wrap them and give them to the children to brighten their day. She was eager to do it and wore a proud smile on her face walking back to the car empty handed.
That experience left us all feeling very fortunate to have such healthy, awesome kids.
So mostly, these days, we are focusing on the presents of our presence, with each other, with family and taking time to stop and watch the rain and sip some coffee. The girls are busy making, running upstairs and downstairs, crafting, wrapping and telling secrets of what is happening – as more and more of their handmade presents get added under the tree.
And so now my friends, I’m jumping in to joining them. I’m signing off from this site for a few days, to slow down, and take it all in one big breath at a time. I hope your holidays are filled with joy and cheer!
For the most part, these days I have left my camera on the shelf. But today I leave you with snapshots of a few things we’ve been up to these days – A piano recital from my oldest girl, peppermint candy cane bath salts for friends, handmade beeswax candles, a skirt for my middle girl sewn from the sweatshirt I wore in the moments after she was born, and last year’s holiday paper made with care. Have a merry one!
