MerryMerry!
“It came without ribbons, It came without tags, It came without packages, boxes, or bags. Christmas can’t be bought from a store… Maybe Christmas means a little bit more.”
-- Dr.Seuss (How the Grinch Stole Christmas)
Hope you all have a very merry Christmas day!
I know we will!
This Christmas, to us, is extra special. Because although the quote at the top of the page is true, the boxes and bows add so much sparkle and fun to the holiday. And for the first time since Puff’s birth, this year, the pretty packages actually have something in them. Something, meaning presents. . .and they’re all for HER!
This was my baby girl in 2008. . .
and in 2007 – her first Christmas ever!
And I don’t know if you can tell, but the gifts and the wrapping in the photos from Puff’s Christmas’ past are the same. They are. This is because they were all empty. I wrapped them all – empty boxes of cereal and soap – only to make my tree look complete, and because I would have been so depressed if I couldn’t get the traditional child-under-the-tree photos. . .
Don’t worry about Puff ! Not that she would remember anyway, but she didn’t go without – good heavens no! Our families – all of her wonderful aunts and uncles and grandparents – they all pitched in and filled her world with everything she couldn’t imagine. Us, too. We’ve always been spoiled by our families, both in love and in gifts, we are very blessed in this regard. But we? Her mom and dad? We had to cancel Christmas. . . we just didn’t have the money, and my heart was broken, two years in a row.
But God is good!
He has not only seen us through our hardest of financial times (on more than one occasion!) but has given us enough so that this year we can do a little bit extra. This year. . .the first that she might remember. The last that she gets to be an only child. . . this year, for Puff, Christmas will be AWESOME!!!
We have been saving for Christmas nearly since Easter! But it surely isn’t to our credit that these gorgeous gifts lie bound with anticipation under the tree. It is not due to any cleverness on our part that bills are paid and pennies pinched. . .Oh no. We had not so much to do with this as we would like to take credit for. THIS, my friends, is a small miracle!
And I thank God! Not only for allowing us to stay in our happy home, healthy, with good food to eat, and clothes to wear – and a car that magically has not died yet. Not only for blessing us with fabulous and loving families who have always come through for us in times of need (or want). Not only for all of the extra unnecessary things that we have been given, but also for allowing Christmas to happen this year.
Because I know – and He certainly knows – that it really doesn’t matter. That nothing this world has to offer us really matters. . .and that the presents aren’t supposed to be what it’s all about, anyway. . . But just as I love to see the look on my child’s face when I present her with something wonderful. . .when she’s happy and joyful and thankful. . . well, so does He like to see us happy. Even when it’s through things that don’t really matter.
And I’m sorry to be all sentimental and gushy and preachy, and but to us this Christmas was a gift from God. And really, all of them have been from the very first, when we were given the greatest gift of all. And I thank Him for all of it.
But on a completely different note. . .
You know who Puff reminds me of?!
“Little Cindy Lou Who, not even more than two…”
-- Dr.Seuss (How the Grinch Stole Christmas)
And for my sister, who seems to be a die-hard Home Alone fan at Christmastime, (please don’t hold it against her, I swear she’s awesome) here is this picture;
. . .remind you of anything??!
(I totally think MY kid is cuter)
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!
- St. Nick (as written by Clement Clarke Moore)
Huginn, Muninn, and me 