I'm the last one up in our quiet house this Christmas Eve, reflecting again on all the things I'm thankful for.
This Christmas, I am overwhelmingly thankful for the family I have; that we get a few glorious days to spend together.
I am thankful for the growing stages of my eldest girl, that she lost her first top tooth today, Christmas Eve, and was left with the most endearing gummy gap. I'd always feared the inevitable toothlessness of my children, but she is exquisite in every way. And really, a tooth pushed out of its place by another tooth? It's miraculous. Or biology. Or both.
A.A. Milne is a genius. Hilarious. Will the REAL Winnie the Pooh please step up? Who knew these stories were so brilliant and ironic and funny? All I ever knew until this week was the Disney-fied, plasticized, watered-down versions of Pooh characters. I am thankful for the 8-dollar set of full color books I bought at a second-hand store, and for the giggles of my girls as we read.
I'm thankful for the blessing of giving. I am more excited to give gifts to my children than I think they will ultimately be about receiving them, but I don't care. I put lots of time and effort into it, lots of heart and soul in what I made, and I'm excited, darn it! and can't wait to see their faces.
I'm thankful for blankets and slippers in the winter time.
I'm thankful for our snowblower, even if it is electric and I have to drag around a power cord after me like someone from the 1960s mowing their lawn. It's okay--that saved us 200 dollars.
I love gravy.
I'm thankful that somehow I know all these culinary things about making turkeys and such--things I learned by osmosis watching my mother cook when I was a kid. Those lessons had more impact on me than all the hours and hours of holiday Food Network programming I've done as an adult.
I'm thankful for creativity and how every year I get this creative bug ripping through me at Christmas time--I want to make something pretty for the whole world. Who knows if I succeed, but I sure love trying.
1 comment:
Hi Heather,
I was cleaning out my "favorites" list and came across your blog (you made the cut:-). I hadn't checked it in quite some time, so I read through it. As usual, beautiful, thoughtful writing. Thanks for sharing it.
I was so saddened to read that you had lost your brother this summer. I am sorry for your loss and your "crisis of faith." He sounds like a great guy. Since I ahve nothing but books to share, C.S. Lewis's Problem of Pain & Joan Didion's Year of Magical Thinking spring to mind. I have them both if you ever want to borrow them. Again, I am so sorry about your brother.
Hope you and yours are well.
~Michelle Bacon Curry
mbaconcurry@yahoo.com
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