Christmas 2011

Christmas.
It is such a magical holiday full of everything.

Mor Mor has been here this year and we had a lovely, smaller, gathering for Christmas eve and again today for Christmas. We had friends over both days and that felt perfect. We took a hike early Christmas eve with other families and this lead to an unfolding of many good things.
Games, play, gifts, cooking, seriously delicious meals, the colors red and green, anticipation, perhaps some disappointment...(Kuba did not get a bird, Anders did not get a remote helicopter) but this seemed minor as the holiday whizzed by.

I think that I've been more introspective, more thoughtful this holiday. Thinking about what makes a holiday feel full, happy, enough. We have so much. Gratitude. How to raise children to feel gratitude for everything that gifts or blesses them. It's a big deal to me and I am thinking a lot about this right now. I want my children to feel deep gratitude and when they have so much it's important to also figure out how to balance all this that they have with appreciation.

I myself will try to spend the week being thoughtful about the things in my life that I feel enormous gratitude for. I will also reflect on what seems to throw me off center and how to build more into my life that fufills me and keeps me solidly resilient.

Highlights from the holiday:

Amazing meals both days; making pierogi with Anna and making mushroom soup with uski; roasted lamb on Christmas, followed by a flourless chocolate cake.
Simply delicious and fufilling meals.

Kuba and Anders so excited, anticipatory, happy to unwrap, play, enjoy the moment.

Beautiful dishes, tablecloths from Sweden, holiday decor that feels so good to look at and have around.

Playing charades, scooting and racing the boys on the basketball court Christmas day.

Reading with the boys.

Watching Kuba and Anders reading Kuba's ABC's together.

Getting a chicken whirligig that Anna made with the boys. (I've been wanting a whiligig!)

Adopting a stray cat that Kuba is simply in love with.
Watching him cozy up to the cat and gently rub his cheeks on the cats soft fur.
Watching him laugh with delight as the cat jumps and plays with a catnip mouse on a string.

Knowing that this...this is my family.
How lucky we are.
Merry Christmas to my dearest, most amazing family.

Decorating for the Holidays

We've brought up the decorations from the basement and spread them throughout the house....ornaments, lights, bird nests, christmas books, tops and a wind-up collection, nutcrackers, etc. All fun, all carefully unpacked and brought back out. This year Anders and Kuba really played with the toys, remembering them from last year, and they also helped with the decoration of the christmas tree. Wind-ups have been scattered across our floor, christmas books have been read and re-read, and the boys are working on their top spinning techniques. We've also begun the great task of baking....pepparkakor, cut outs, macaroons, gingerbread house, saffron bullar, etc. It's been busy around here. We're moving at about 1000 miles per hour and our house reflects the speed. It's messy these days. I can't imagine what it's going to take to slow down, get our house back to order and simply be in this holiday season. Lots more to do in the next 5 days!

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

OH, my boys!

Thanksgiving 2011

If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, "thank you," that would suffice.
~Meister Eckhart

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Playing together

Mini Picasso

It's true. I do think Kuba is a creative kid. When presented with a whole stack of paper and a bucket of markers this is the series he came up with. Anna was struck by these drawings and saved all of them. When I got home she and Kuba went through the pile with me, both of them beaming. I can not express enough how much fun it is to see your own child's creative mind expressed visually. Sometimes I think he'll be a musician, other times a visual artist, other times an inventor...and sometimes on a really bad day I can't quite figure out what he'll be but I think it might involve pushing and hitting. AH, the absolute thrill of parenting. Vulnerabilities and strengths all wrapped up into one little body and we get to witness all of it.