Happy Holidays

I had the best of news the other day:  My mom and step-dad are traveling from California to spend Thanksgiving with my family here in Colorado.  This is a such a sweet treat!  This holiday season is bitter-sweet for me.  My oldest daughter will be graduating from college in the spring, and my 17 year old twins will be graduating from high school at the same time and they are planning to go out-of-state to school.  My twenty year old son is looking to a professional future that may very well take him from our home in the near future as well.  We will shortly be going from having all five children under the same roof to just the baby being home.  I am so grateful to have her!  I think my mom is coming to offer some moral support as our family is on the cusp of big change.  Thank you mom!

 I remember when I was about the age of my twins (I am the middle child of a family of five kids) that my dad made a comment at the dinner table that it would not be long before family dinners with all of us kids there would soon be coming to an end and that we would never be together in quite the same way again.  I didn't believe him.  Now, when all my children gather around our family table for a meal together I savor the music of their laughter and the conversations we share.  This time will soon come to an end.  They will go on to live their own lives as my brother and sisters have done.  I am in equal measures excited for my children and sad for myself.  I will miss them!

My hope is that the traditions and memories we've formed as a family, particularly those that focus on the holiday season, will turn their hearts towards home, even when they cannot actually be here.  When our oldest daughter celebrated her first Christmas, I made hand puppets and hung them all over the Christmas tree.  When our next son was born, I made fabric baby toys and blocks as ornaments.  When the twins were born, we were just lucky to HAVE a tree.  I was a very busy mommy with four children aged four and under.  One year, when the four older children were still quite little, however,  I made countless picture frames covered with fabric and placed pictures of them all over the tree.  I think I'll dig those out of the basement this year and add pictures of the baby to the mix. 

Every Christmas that I have had the privilege of being a mother, I have wanted to hold onto some sort of memory of that year.  Usually, an ornament for the tree serves as a memento.  This year, I've started this little business, and so I think it will be fitting to hang a little dove that I have made and  that I am selling on our tree.

My little business is promising to fill the empty space my growing children are leaving behind.  The skills I have gained while raising them have not only colored our memories and Christmas trees, but have also enriched our life together.  I am grateful to share those gifts with you.  Best wishes for a happy holiday season from my home to yours.