Through the eyes of a child

At this holiday season, enjoy the little things, listen to the music, and laugh.

Charlie is 16 months old, and he is delighted with Christmas, especially the musical snowmen. He babbles endlessly and tries to sing Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes. When I ask him what Santa says, he replies, "Ha-Ha-Ha."

Create something. Use your noggin. If you are a writer, put a few words on a page. It is difficult during the holidays to make time for yourself. Start a story, an article, a blog post, a project.

Alex is 2 1/4 years old and  a very busy boy, talkative and interested in learning. Here he is clipping holiday clothespins to the rim of a plastic cup. He thinks he's playing, but he is doing busy work, strengthening his fingers for when he has to hold a writing instrument. 

Think out of the box, or take a box and make something out of it. Be creative. Let your child figure out how to color INSIDE of a box. 

When I needed a few minutes to myself to clean the kitchen, I gave them markers and let them decorate their high chair trays. Alex had a blast. Charlie chomped the blue marker, and that was the end of that.

Cooperate, be nice, everyone has a struggle. Share your time and talents. Peace be with you and yours.

Usually these two are battling brothers, but they played together for a change and actually got along.

I don't have a photo of Liam to share, but wish you could see him steal the show at his kindergarten holiday performance when he spied his parents in the audience and threw each of them a big kiss.

Share the love!

Guys do it and girls do, too.

My daughter hosted a holiday party/cookie exchange at her home last weekend. I crashed the party, and I am proud of it. Tee hee.

                        Jenni, Phyllis, Denise, Karen, Tracey in front, Carla, absent out of town.

I've known the two in the middle for forty-three and forty-six years. I watched them grow up, go through their stages from childhood through the difficult teen years, into adulthood. It is hard to believe some are grandmas.

As these girls grew up and found themselves, they lost touch temporarily, reconnected periodically, but over the decades they did keep in touch, through the good times and bad.

Every Christmas my girl decorates her house to the nines, and everyone brings goodies, toasts to the past, present, and future, and are on a natural high (okay it could be the wine and cookies) for an entire day.

The new friends fit right in to the group of gigglers. Look at them taking a Charlie's Angel's pose. In my opinion they are all my angels.

Before I knocked on the door, their raucous laughter pealed, and I smiled inwardly knowing how much women need female friends to lift one another up, listen to each other complain, and bellow at raunchy word/card games.

I so enjoyed myself and relived parts of my youth, as I watched them and reminisced about old friends and old times.

Did YOU ever attend Home Interior or Tupperware parties? Remember the feeling of temporary freedom? No husband, or kids, or phone ringing. Remember the guilty pleasure of eating deserts? Laughing and sharing with other women?

Got me to thinking about a television commercial for State Farm Insurance. As Sheryl's she-shed is burning, she looks at her bewildered husband and vows to rebuild a she-ier she-shed.

I think we all need a great escape, some place to unwind, to be ourselves, to not be interrupted by noise or requests.

Guys have had their garages, man caves, camp outs and hunting trips. Girls just wanna have fun, too.


    

In recovery mode

I wish I could tell you we had a lovely Thanksgiving. We  both ended up with a 48 hour stomach virus, although I still say it was the ham sandwich we ate the day before that gave us food poisoning.

Bill's best friend was very concerned, and kneaded his dad's stomach often in an attempt to wake him. Saturday we were feasting on leftovers, and did so all weekend. 

I finally got enough energy to put up the tree.

This is about how much energy I had for two days. Charlie Brown tree was going to be IT. Then...

I woke with a burst of energy Sunday. I got the tree in its box stuck on a stop shelf in the closet. I finally finagled it down and erected the tree. It isn't fancy, and the ornaments are precious and priceless but not costly. Some are almost fifty years old and most are hand made by our children and grandchildren. Each has significance and is meaningful. I love it when the kids come over and find their old art work and decorations. The stories are the same year after year, but it is fun to remember.

These baby footprints are reminders of the growth each great-grandson has experienced to date and the steps they will continue to take toward growing up, and having big old stinky man feet. Alex is sightly built, but look! He had the biggest baby feet.

For now I can still kiss and count their toes and massage their little feet. When I hang all the homemade ornaments, I count my blessings one by one. Each has a name attached.

From our house to yours, we wish you a happy holiday season. Take care of yourself as you rush around taking care of chores, shopping, and others. What do you do for self care and pampering?