You guys, the holidays are in full swing and this year I am ALL IN. Usually my eyes are too busy rolling to the ceiling at the commercialization and chaos of this month, which gets in my way of fully engaging until a little too late in the game and then I'm glum about it having gone by too fast, but this year, I'm soaking it in. I'm loving every Christmas song on the radio, every Christmas tree and candy cane I see, and all the hoopla and corny traditions. I even considered taking Sloane to visit Santa…buuut I'm coming up on the side of no; from her perspective I can see why it would be terrifying to be thrust into the lap of a large bushy white-bearded stranger in a red suit and have to sit there for photos.
to say the next few weeks is going to be busy is an understatement, but most of the planned events are for holiday-related things and I am excited, especially about being able to spend time with family.
but also, full disclosure, i'm finding myself slipping into bouts of crankiness. It is undoubtedly a combination of s.a.d. and lack of sleep, but who has time for sleep?!? I need to get a hold of myself. More importantly, along with keeping up with the holiday spirit, I want to savor what is actually really worth savoring. I am trying to read along with John Piper's "Good News of Great Joy: Daily Readings for Advent" and you may want to go check it out if that is something that tickles your goat. You can get the whole thing in PDF for free. You know what I would like to do this Christmas? Practice experiencing what I was really made for - seeing and savoring true glory.
so that's what you'll find me doing over the next few weeks, savoring.
these are a few photos from our Saturday morning this past weekend, when our little family trekked out to our nearby Walmart to wrangle in a Christmas tree. We hit some road bumps along the way, but I'll tell you about that later. For now, some links from around the web that I really appreciate, they are good and meaty. To illustrate spectrum of my life right now, I'd like to point out that after appreciating all of these things during the day, I later sang "bah bah black sheep" ten times in a row, per Sloane's request.
"Invisible Child: Dasani's Homeless Life": a remarkable piece of journalism about homeless children in New York City.
"Unconditional Love": this week's episode of This American Life
"Planet Money Makes A T-Shirt": another really great piece of investigative journalism
"Office Hours With George Saunders": I just really like this guy and I like his stories and I like what he has to say about writing
'Unconditional Love' reminds me of child raising method in my motherhood. How lucky you are to have kids and raise them with easily accessible information nowadays!
ReplyDeleteThat particular This American Life was one of those episodes that I started in the car, got home before it was over, so I had no choice but to park, idle, hold Evelyn and let Simone climb around the car until the story was over. I was so moved, caught myself tearing up more than once.
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