Sweet Suzanne asked me to share with you some of my favorite holiday traditions, and I must've started and stopped this list a thousand times. When I was little, really little, my favorite things list would've been about closing my eyes as tight as I could, squeezing them shut and listening to the sounds on the roof... is that him? is that? and then MOM WAKE UP I THINK SANTA'S HERE! That tradition would've been at the tippety top of my {littlest me} favorite things list.
When I got a little older... old enough to see that Santa's handwriting and wrapping paper were quite like my mom's... well, then my favorite things list would've been about wishing for snowfalls on Christmas day... watching A Christmas Story over and over and Ralphie-you'll-shoot-your-eye-out! over again... seeing my family open the cards that I'd made the night before with cotton balls and crayons and glue... and playing with my delicious new treasures for the next several days. These traditions would've been at the tippety top of my {medium me} favorite things list.
And then I got a lot older... old enough to know that Christmas was wonderful but also stressful. Families seemed to fight a bit more... it became a lot about money and less about thought and love... Christmas trees started going up a bit later... the magic of the holidays was around me here and there, but that tangible, prickly, glittery feeling? It was missing.
This year, though, something changed. Our little girl arrived: Devon Whitney. Stinky McStinkpot. Twenty inches and six whole pounds of giggly, warm, loved up and new. She's too little to understand now, but soon she'll believe in Santa, in reindeer, in the importance of cutting paper snowflakes and leaving out snacks for the elves. Sometimes you need a little reminder of that feeling... of waking up to the smell of pine and presents... of hot cocoa and sugar cookies in the morning... of realizing that maybe Santa isn't as big and red and ho!ho!ho! as you once thought, but that there's a little Santa in all of us. This feeling is at the tippety top of my {biggest me} favorite things list.
Psst: Thanks, Suzanne, for having me here. I hope you'll all come visit me at my blogs, The Lil Bee and Feather Report.
Big kiss,
Bee.
Images from top to bottom, all via We Heart It: Scream Colors; Katherine writes.; Inspirart; and unknown.
i needed your comment this morning and i needed this post.
ReplyDeleteit's exactly how my mom told me...and i sort of love thinking that you grew up with the same ideas. i like moments when the world seems way smaller than it really is, you know? does that make sense?
xoxo and thanks, you.
Thanks so much Bee. It looks like you've already figured out one of the best things about having a child...they remind you how to be a kid again. :)
ReplyDeleteEnjoy that sweet little bundle of joy. xo
This is beautiful Bee! So very beautiful....I couldn't agree more, with all of it. (even The Christmas Story over and over again) :) Thank you, there is indeed a little Santa in all of us, so very well put by you!
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Melis
Im glad I followed thelilbee over here for her (sweet & heartwarming!) guest post. I love your blog and Im looking forward to adding you to our daily reads!
ReplyDeleteThis was so fun to put together, Suzanne. I hadn't remembered all of these things until I sat down and thought about them. Thanks for that:) xo
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