Unexpected Car Fixings, or How to Make Merry on the Mini

We take Christmas as we find it.
Big or little. Rich or poor.
 
Our December began with a broken car.
Growing kids bursting out of their coats and socks and shoes.
And a skinnier piggy bank.

So we're doing homemade this Christmas.
And humble, homemade gifts won't hurt us a bit.

In light of so much sorrow around us this year,
all we have is gratitude.

The messes don't matter.
I am unspeakably thankful for these eight small hands,
alive and healthy,
for the joyful chaos that surrounds them,
for my imperfect, half-finished jumble,
the light, the squeals, the squabbles.

The egg carton bells.
Popsicle stick snowflakes.

Trying on wreaths as hats.

What matters is already surrounding us.

Love encircles us,
wraps us in glowing strands,
and though it doesn't magically take away the sorrows
of our broken world,
Love is the thing that will mend us.

It anchors us when winds and sorrows come.
Smooths out the wrinkles in our weary, bleary furrows.
Makes us small candles to give courage in the dark. 

Simple, homespun gifts may not be sophisticated,
fancy, or exactly on everyone's wish list,
but they are offerings of love.
and I'm okay with that.

Because love goes deeper than wish lists.


Christmas began with a gift
wrapped in old clothes and straw.
A humble gift.
A love gift.




Love to you, my friends.
Love.
Connecticut. Haiti. Japan.
Rwanda. Middle East. 
Love to you.


Picture Books We're Enjoying this Week:

 
 
The Christmas Tapestry- Patricia Polacco
Christmas in the Barn- Margaret Wise Brown, Barbara Cooney
A Child is Born - Elizabeth Winthrop, Charles Mikolaycak
Gleam and Glow - Eve Bunting, Peter Sylvada
Christmas with the Mousekins - Maggie Smith
The Little House Christmas - Laura Ingalls Wilder, Garth Williams
One Wintry Night - Ruth Bell Graham, Richard Jesse Watson
The Joy of A Peanuts Christmas - Charles Schultz