Remembering

I remember a day right about this time last year when I was driving home from running some errands and the song "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" came on the radio.  As I do with most Christmas songs, I started singing out loud without much thought to the words when I heard the line "next year all our troubles will be miles away" come out of my mouth.  And I lost it - I was bawling in my car while driving down the road.

My emotions were raw to begin with.  It was just after the Newtown tragedy which had hit me hard.  My Dad was in his final rounds of chemo fighting his cancer battle.  The sentiment at first sounds great but if you really think about it, who are we to say how much better off we will be at any time in the future?  I knew in my heart the families in Newtown would not feel like their troubles were far away the next year at that time  - if anything they would feel awful - missing their loved ones.   My heart hoped that my Dad would be chemo and cancer free at Christmas time next year, but there is always the little voice that goads you into thinking - what if he is not here at all?

I have so much fun Christmas stuff to post and I hate coming on here and being a big downer, but sometimes this helps me work through things.  My Uncle who last year at this time thought he was fine; is nearing the end of his battle with aggressive cancer.  My family is facing the reality right now that unless a miracle occurs, next year he will not be with us at Christmas.

So my thought is to not look forward to next year.  Enjoy THIS year and the people you share it with and try to make the best of the circumstances you are given.  This life we are given is fragile.  There are no guarantees that the people we love will be with us for the time we feel is sufficient to love them.  Love them every day, every minute, every precious chance you get.

Hailey B. Jones

On December first our scout elf Springle made his appearance in our home for the first time since he left last Christmas Eve.   To say that Hailey was overjoyed to see him would be a gross understatement.  She immediately wrangled up a tiny Christmas stocking that Springle could have and should take back to the North Pole with him.   She grabbed her Daddy by the hand and they began writing out their lists of gift ideas that would give Santa a little help in filling his bag.  

As I was tucking her in last night she told me she thought that Springle really loved the stocking she gave him and hoped that he would write a thank you note to her.  

Never to disappoint, when Springle got back to the North Pole last night he must have sat down at his PC or Mac and wrote out a little note to Hailey and tied it up with a sweet little red ribbon.  When she found him this morning on our mantel he clutched the little scroll in his hands.   She was the cutest.  I could tell she was so excited to see what he was holding, yet so scared that she might accidentally touch him.   She asked me to retrieve the note for her and then sat down to read what it said. 

"Dear Hailey - Thank you for the stocking.  P.S. I gave your lists to Santa Claus!"

Springle is apparently an elf of few words, but she was thrilled none the less.  She got right to work on another note for him.  "Note" might not be as appropriate a term as "billboard".  She wrote it on a piece of poster board.   I told her that might be kind of hard for the little guy to fly with all the way to Santa's workshop. 

"I love you.  Oh and thank you for the letter. Bye, Hailey.  To Springle and Santa Claus.  The other side is for Santa Claus. Oh and I have a ............(can't make out the word)"

"Santa Claus.  I love you.  Bye.  See you later."

Isn't she the sweetest?  What stuck out to me in the letters is how the Junie B. Jones books we have been reading are making an appearance in her vocabulary.  With the two separate "oh's".  I know the author of Junie B. just died and my kids love the books, but sometimes I don't like how Junie can be a little sassy mouthed.  

So Springle has a big letter to bring home tonight.  I hope he has been lifting some weights on the off season. 

BTW - I know the Elf on the Shelf is all the rage now but you are not going to see a bunch of posts about where our elf wound up this morning.  We had this elf before having an elf was the cool thing to do.  I ordered him from a catalog back in 2007 when that was the only place you could get them.  I thought the premise was so cute and anything to help my little children behave a little better during the busy holiday season was a plus.  Our elf simply hides and now does a little pen paling. :)   He is not mischievous or naughty.  I just don't see the point of that - I am sure the kids think its funny, but the point is that the elf is watching your kids behavior - why does he get to be naughty and play tricks if they don't?  I am not trying to stand up here on my pedestal and tell you your wrong if you do that - if you want to come up with elaborate schemes for your elf every night - by all means do so.  I just choose to take that pressure off of myself during this busy season.