It's That Time Again

It's our turn to have Thanksgiving dinner on Friday.

We alternate with our DIL's family.

Our kids seem to love two Thanksgiving dinners in a row.

On Saturday the pumpkins and autumn colors will go away

and Christmas will show up at our house.

This year we got a pre-lit pencil tree and are leaving our

big tree tucked away in the attic for next year when hopefully

my knee will be totally healed and we'll have more energy!

"Not so little one" wrinkled up her nose when she saw the very thin tree and said it looked

like it belonged to a great-grandmother in a nursing home.

She has one of those, so knows just what she's talking about!

But simplifying is my goal this year and the smaller tree will help

Do you consider making things simpler as Christmas approaches?

I've had some time to think this year as our December calendar starts to fill in.

All such good things.

But does that mean we should try to do them all? 

As I get older I find I'm yearning for more time to read and think and just be.

I enjoy the Christmas season so much, but should I fill the calendar

so there is little time for reflection?

In the book Radical Hospitality, the author says,

"We do not even know how to imagine our lives without all the bustle."

I don't know if I'll slow down this Christmas––

But I hope so. 

I long for quiet and stillness.

Time for slow conversation with good friends.

Time to savor thoughts of the Christ Child.

And to worship and adore.

Littlest and Puppy

It's so hard to keep the grandchildren from growing up.

It's actually impossible.

Therefore I'm savoring time with them this school year.

I volunteer in the original "Little One's" (now 9) classroom one morning a week.

I can't express the delight it is for me to sit at a table and listen to the kids

read their chapter books aloud.  Every so often we have to stop and chat.

They often have twinkles in their eyes as they mention something 

they learned from their grandparents about the "old days."

I pick up the next youngest from KG two days a week and bring him back

to my house for a couple of hours. It saves his mom carpool time.

These are precious times, at least for grandma.

As far as Littlest, now in preschool, we enjoy special arranged times.

The other day, on the way from school to my house, she was missing her "puppy"

and had the idea of making a house for him.

Little did she know Grandma had the perfect box,
just an hour before placed in the recycle.

She described just how we would make it--and we did!

The buttons her tiny hands used to sort were now used for decorations.

The green decorative arches doubled as handles in case it becomes a "puppy carrier."

Back at home it was a perfect fit for Puppy.

I even heard Puppy, in the "Carrier," went along for trick or treating!