It was a good week here. A quiet week. Which was much needed. I’m finishing up some projects and wrapping up orders for clients. I feel like I am winding down for the year and I welcome that. Welcome family time spent with my littles and husband. Welcome the peace and beauty that this season brings. Welcome the scented candles lit, the Christmas tunes playing on pandora, and the warm embrace of Jeff’s hooded sweatshirt I usually sport in the evenings. It is all a part of this week’s December loveliness.

Onto the simple things that made me smile this week. There are six I took pictures of and a few small little extra goodies at the end that just put the cherry on top of my week.

1.  A good sunrise.

Bonus points that it fell on my birthday this week.  I awoke Tuesday morning to 36 years of bliss that I have walked so far on this earth.  Thirty six.  Wow.  Crazy that I am that old.  It’s a good thing I can bust out a good running man dance move to remind me that I am still young at heart. As I gathered up my kids and we walked down the hallway to start breakfast, I noticed the unusually bright light pouring through our front window.  We walked outside into the cold morning air and I thanked God for the best birthday gift ever.  Reds, pinks, and oranges lit up our Northwest sky.  Grace especially loved the pink colors and she screamed it loud so that our neighbors could all hear too, “PIIIIIIINNNNKKK!”  Yep, it was the kind of morning sunset that gives you goosepimples, I tell you.  Goosepimples.  It warmed the cockles of my heart. I couldn’t have wrapped up a better present for myself if I had tried.

The rest of my “day” was fairly normal. I do have to share about our Red Robin experience. Yes, we are the family that heads out to Red Robin for EVERY birthday celebration. For two reasons: a.) for the free birthday burger and b.) so you can be sung to.  And, if you know me well, you will know that I do STILL in fact, LOVE to be sung to on my birthday.  Once in college, my roommates took me out to the “Big Bird” and when the waiters came to sing, I stood on top of the table and directed everyone.  Am I ashamed to admit this?  No.  I just LOvE all of the attention I can get on my birthday.  So, you imagine my thrill when Jeff left the table to “use the bathroom” and I KNEW he was going to put the word into the waiters to give it to me good!  Oh, the sweet excitement.  However, while he was gone, our young waitress came back to the table with the bill.  I handed her my Red Robin card {the one that shows you have a free birthday burger} and she says to me, “You don’t want us to sing Happy Birthday to you, do you?”  I knew why she was asking me this.  Because I’m not five.  I’m thirty six, dammit.  Adults shouldn’t WANT to be sung to in public, right?  How could I look her straight in the eye and say, “Why, yes.  Yes, I do.  I do want all of the wait staff to come over, light up a candle, hand me a pink balloon and sing very loudly Happy Birthday to me in the most obnoxious way.”  And, Jeff was gone, so he couldn’t have piped in for me to say, “YES! DO it!”  So I lied, and said, “Oh, that’s alright.”  And then I thought if I should ask her, “You don’t want a tip, do you?” and see what she says.  But, I didn’t.  She responded with a “Oh, good.  I hate singing that song.”

Really?

Jeff got back to the table and I recounted the story to him.  I was bummed.  But, as I was telling him, here they came.  Loudly.  Ice cream in hand and doing their thing.  The thing, that I believe, Red Robin staff does best.  Sing.  Jeff had found our waitress and told her to go for it.  And, I pretended to be embarrassed by all of the commotion, because what thirty six year old in their right mind would want to be sung to like that?  Deep down though, my heart was exploding like red, white, and blue 4th of July fireworks and I was doing cartwheels inside.

2.  Katie Daisy.

Yes, Katie Daisy is the new found love of my life.  I LOVE her art work and I want to collect all of her pieces.  They are whimsical and hopeful, with a burst of color.  Anyway, this little package arrived by Fed Ex this last week and I was beyond excited.  I can only show you the packaging, because what is inside is part of a Christmas present I am working on for Jeff, but isn’t it just lovely?  Even the packaging?  Check her out.  You will love what you see.

3.  Twinkling lights.

They are everywhere.  I love this time of the year when even running to the grocery store is like a magical wonderland.  And, another bonus goes to the pretty December skyline that was showing off the end of the day sunset.

4.  Pig tails.

This week, Grace ran through our house with pig tails in her fine little hair.  Seriously.  I wanted to eat her up, she was so cute.

5. Black patent Mary Janes.

This deserves another… Seriously?  Seriously.  She is so cute.  She strutted around wearing her new Christmas dress with her little hand me down shoes on and she just thought she was the bomb diggity.  Seriously, though.  This too warmed the cockles of my heart this week because before I had her, when I imagined my little girl, I imagined her with pig tails and tiny Mary Janes.  MY little girl.

6. Seeing Santa.

This little four year old dressed up to the nines yesterday to go see the big man.  This was the year.  The year where believing Santa flies in his sleigh and comes down the chimney is real.  Magical.  Magical like running through fields of wildflowers, catching snowflakes with your tongue, or tasting a Hershey’s Kiss for the first time {which Ben did just last week} magical.  I watched closely at Ben’s face as he walked into Santa’s workshop to greet him, list in hand.  His sister followed behind.  I don’t know why this touched me so.  Why I started to choke up as I knelt down next to Ben’s ear and whispered, “Go say hi.”  It could have been the look in Ben’s eyes as he approached Santa’s chair.  The look that read, “I’m nervous and in awe at the same time.”  Or, it could have been the thought again I had pre-kids when I imagined my little boy seeing Santa for the first time.  This was it.  I’m the Mom and this is MY little boy.

Santa read Ben’s list and so tenderly said to Ben, “Ben, come closer so that I can look into your eyes.”  Ben took a step forward.  ”I can tell you’ve been a good little boy this year by looking in your eyes,”  Santa said.  Ben smiled and looked proud.  My heart melted.  We chatted for a bit longer with him, while the camera guy got ready, all the while Grace clinging to my leg.  When it was time, I lifted Ben up to sit on his lap and Grace didn’t want any part of it.  So…  the camera clicked with all four of us in the frame, me holding Grace.  Jeff on one knee.  And, Ben.  Ben was in heaven on Santa’s lap.

A few other “extra” lovelies from the week…

*We saw THIS movie on Friday night. EXCELLENT. Even Jeff liked it.
*Ben coming to snuggle with us in bed in the mornings.
*Zumba.
*We made THESE this week with our pre-school craft group.

I am unable to link up to Simple As That this week, because she is taking a break this week, as they are moving.

Early last week, I decided to pop some popcorn for the kids as an afternoon snack.  As soon as the bag goes into the microwave and the sounds of kernels being popped is heard and I can image the delicious smell of it wafts through the air, our yellow lab, rises from his nap and walks on into our kitchen.  He knows that popped popcorn means a special treat for him as well.  That and McDonald’s french fries.  Pavlov dog at its finest.

I poured some of our yummy treat into a bowl and sat down on the couch with the kids to enjoy the crunchy goodness together.  Ben and Grace always get a kick out of throwing popcorn to Chase, while he sits and watches us with drool pouring out of his mouth.  They all just laugh and laugh at Chase catching them in mid air with the snap of his jaws.

This particular afternoon, I noticed how dumb our dog can be.  Not really.  He’s actually really smart.  Several times he has rescued us from being locked out of our house.  But, that is a different story for a different time {we do call him Super dog}.  But, he can be pretty focused on food, which causes him to sometimes miss out on the very treat he loves right in front of his face.  For example, Ben tossed him some pop corn and he excitedly ran to munch it up, while Grace dropped a piece onto the floor.  He trots back over, ready to grab the next toss, as we are all trying to show him that there is already one on the floor for him.  He seems to listen to us, frantically trying to find it, as we are all pointing to it, but he is so excited that he misses it and it sits left on the floor uneaten.  Right next to his paw, while he sits perched and aimed ready for the next launch.  This happens over and over and it is laughable.  The kids and I trying to get him to notice the already thrown ones on the floor.  But, he is just too eager and overly excited for the next throw.  Silly dog.

I wonder how often this happens to me in my own life.  How many times I have missed out on the treat right in front of my face, because I am so eager to get the next treat along the way?  How I miss out on living and enjoying the present and I more so look toward the future.  If I only would have stopped to notice what was right in front of me, I would have been ten fold rewarded by the deliciousness of the blessing.

Such is always my prayer these days.  To stop.  Be present.  To look.  Listen.  Smile at God’s gifts.

I read this earlier this week and it resonated greatly within me:

Isn’t that the truth, mamas?  Shall we stop and look and just BE with our littles more?

I did just that on Tuesday night with a sick little girl who was up every couple of hours with the stomach flu that passed briefly through our house earlier this week.  Yes, I was tuckered out on Wednesday, but early Tuesday morning I held her tight.  I smelled her hair as she snuggled into me all koala style and how it softly touched my face.  I listened to her rhythmic breathing as she fell back asleep.  I rocked and rocked that little babe and rubbed her back and kept her wrapped in her special blanket.  And, I made a point to breathe in the before dawn moments we shared together.

Rockin her messy hair and puke bucket

Besides getting sick for a day this past week, we were actually quite busy being crafty around the house and spending time with lots of friends.  Busy with all things Christmasy and good.  As Ben tells me from the back seat of the car, while passing through our neighborhood, “Merry Christmas, Mommy” and Grace spots the beautiful sparkly neighborhood lights and squeals, “Sparkly shoes!”  {aka. sparkly lights like her silver sparkly shoes}, we had a festive week!  Hope yours was grand as well!

Ben showing us all how to eat the gingerbread house we made.  Notice G’s face…  she was way more interested in eating the candy, instead of decorating.

A little somethin somethin I worked on this week for our Christmas decor. I will try and get up a post soon with some of our fun Christmas decorations around here!

Birdseed ornaments. Recipe can be found here. I came in to do these with Ben’s pre-school class on Wednesday and we tested them at home prior as well. Needless to say, we have birdseed ornaments EVERYWHERE right now, as I am wrapping up all of the class’s ornaments and we are hanging ours around our home.

A little craft we did today.  Except, we used these tiny miniture pots I had in my craft stash, instead of the egg cartons.

And these too. Super easy. Pipe cleaners found in the dollar section at Joanne’s with some extra bells I had from the earlier craft. Jingle bell bracelets.

And, this painted garland the kids painted earlier this week. Hung on the window above our tree.

So, like I said… just some good ol fashioned Merry goodness.

My dear friend said it best last night as we all danced together and watched the “snow” fall at Bellevue’s Snowflake Lane. “This time is so magical for them,” she said. And, I watched as our kids were propped up on shoulders and being held and cradled and they reached up high. High up to the sky to touch those tiny flakes. Laughing and giggling. Dancing and eating their candy canes.

Magical.

On a different note, I’ve got a little surprise for you all that I will post later this week… so stay tuned!

Have a great week…

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