Monday, a new work and school week, a new opportunity to share some of my thanksgivings.
This morning I find myself particularly thankful for:
24. A beautiful weekend with D. and the sweet girl, full of Christmas preparation and events. The festival of Christmas trees, a horse and wagon ride down Church Street, candles in the cold. Good time around the advent wreath. Putting up our tree.
25. And oh, that tree! The sweet girl decorated most of it, so it's heavy (dripping!) with ornaments from about four feet and downwards. I know lots of people decorate beautiful, designer looking trees, but give me our homemade hodge-podge anytime, with every ornament collected over the past eighteen years a story in and of itself.
26. A lovely service at church yesterday, honoring our retired pastor. It was both a good and challenging time for me, as it brought up emotions and feelings on a lot of levels (including some, connected to our church's journey, that I didn't know I had). But ultimately good.
27. Lights! I love the lights on our tree, and the purple lights (for advent) that we string around the living room wall. Craving light as I am at this dark time of year, there couldn't be a better time to enjoy these tiny bits of brightness in our home. And how I loved hearing the sweet girl at prayers this morning (we prayed and did Bible reading by the tree) when she said so sweetly and simply "and thank you for the lights on our tree and how they remind us of Your light."
28. Slipper socks. This is not a joke, though I feel very Albus Dumbledore (well, early pre-DH Albus, anyway) when I write it. I have been so incredibly cold the past couple of weeks and I confess I've been having a bit of a pity party for myself because my heating pad died several months ago and all of my socks seem to have sprung holes at the same time (and we're having one of our very, very lean months where purchasing things like socks and heating pads just aren't on the list). Imagine my delight yesterday when I scrounged around in my drawer and found an old pair of slipper socks (warm, fuzzy, sky-blue, sans holes!) stuck way in the back. I think my sister might have given them to me for Christmas a few years ago, and they've still got some good wear in them. My toes are so much happier today!
29. The advent poem is coming. The advent poem is coming! (I feel like a breathless herald, like Paul Revere!) It's currently in embryo in my journal -- a very rough draft, in its most scribbled, lines-crossed-out, margin-noted form. But it is on its way.
3 comments:
I'm such a fan of hodgepodge trees too. Martha Stewart trees are nice to look at in a display, but give me our mixed-up collection of ornaments any time! The trouble now is that with five or us, we've accumulated so many that we have waaaay more than will fit on our tree. So part of the decorating task now ends up being deciding what *not* to hang up...
Yesterday, I was sitting on the couch with freezing feet and musing that I needed to go find some socks when Mom said "Oh!" and ran upstairs and presented me with a pair of thick woolen novelty socks she'd bought for me. And man, were those socks cozy!! The minute I put them on, I felt like drifting right off to sleep...
Also, did I ever tell you I wrote a poem about Christmas lights when I was ten or so? I guess I showed it to my teacher, because somehow I wound up reading it in our weekly chapel service. I've always *loved* Christmas lights!
Hooray for hodgepodge trees. We've got too many ornaments for our tree now too, but S. just loves putting them on and yesterday I didn't have the heart to stop her. :-) It's a very full tree this year!
And yay for warm socks. I am just loving having my slipper socks again. I can't believe I honestly want socks for Christmas this year (what a boring gift, I always thought as a child) but they're high on the list!
We strung up small purple lights around the living room for the second year in a row -- we did it last for advent and enjoyed it so much we did it again. Some of them are framing the window right here next to me while I type. I love Christmas lights too -- I often wish I could keep more of them up on into the cold days of February!
When did you write your first poem? I'm guessing you were about four... ;-)
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