Thursday we ventured out in the cold to see the downtown's annual tree lighting, the next night we went to our church's Advent Family Fun Night where the kids have a great time seeing friends, eating pizza, and doing Christmas crafts. They make those wonderful, hand-made ornaments that I will especially treasure when they are off at their first year of college.
Then we headed to a local Elf's Gift Shop. This event takes the kids with the help of the girl scout troop around to a vendor fair to pick out secret gifts for mom/dad/sister/brother/etc. They love this event. Although I am fairly certain that CJ will not be able to keep my present a secret. She keeps telling me "hints". Soon I suspect that she will just say, "Here's a hint Mommy: It's a necklace" or something to that effect.
Next weekend, I am taking CJ to The Nutcracker. Since her recent statements to "what I want to be when I grow up" question have been that she wants to be a ballerina and a teacher... or teach ballet, I think it is time she actually see some ballet. Stay tuned.
We received our first Christmas card on Saturday and I talked to a friend who just mailed hers out that day. Wow. Cards are always thought of as such a chore of the holiday season for me.
It's all the effort of the project: gathering the addresses, writing special notes inside and then picking up the stamps. But I sat down today to work on it, nonetheless. I have a huge storage bin of cards from years past. I mostly keep them so that I can go through and capture addresses to send to people the current year. Plus, it just feels weird to trash something people took time to mail to you.
I decided to go through all of them today. I will admit that it made me sort of melancholy if not a bit sad seeing the pictures of little cousins and children of friends who have grown up so much, seeing my plump pregnancy pose with CJ in my belly and Alexander on my lap, reading the notes from friends that we have moved away from and lost touch. Time passes. People move on. Loved ones pass on.
As I gathered up the mountain of cards from the last 5 years for the recycling bin it made me realize that everyday, not just the 4 weeks of Christmas cheer, I must love those who I have in my life today and remember to thank God for having blessed me with them in my life.
Merry Christmas everyone! Enjoy the Season and hopefully you'll get a card in the mail soon...
3 comments:
Nice!
Which day are you going to Nutcracker? Micah and I are going on Sunday. We can't wait!
You should consider writing a book. This brought a tear to my eye. (I know, not hard to do to Aunt Ann!) Kisses!
It brought a tear to my eye also. We have loss some very speacial people the last couple of years.
WOW, you have grown up and matured. But remember all the good times you had with all those people. Love, Mom
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