The day after Thanksgiving. The day after all the food, all the Family, all the craziness. Yesterday, we were reminded to be Thankful, but I needed no reminder. I am grateful everyday for this really incredible journey of being your mother.
When Dad and I arrived home last Sunday from a trip to Mexico with friends, I climbed in bed with each of you and just allowed myself to be. Each of you curled your little (yet not so little anymore) bodies up against me, and I knew I was in the exact place I was supposed to be-home with all of my people.
Jax-your feet are officially bigger than mine. How did this happen? It seems only yesterday I was looking at you for the first time, staring in wonderment at all that dark hair and olive skin. Little did we know we’d get dimples, too. Lately, your friends have been coming over to our house everyday (and I mean literally everyday) after school. I like being the home where you and your friends congregate. I hope this will mean I will always know your friends, and that they will be comfortable in our home. You are loud boys and you all eat all my food. And I love it!
Cole. The little brother. You are so excited about so many things about the upcoming Holiday season. Santa. The Elf. Wrapping presents. Snow. Christmas Music. I would love to bottle your enthusiasm, because I just know someday I’m going to want it back.
As we were getting out the Christmas trees and ornaments this week, Jackson was being very helpful and bringing up my tubs of ornaments from the storage room. One of the tubs was placed on the dining room table, and when I came downstairs to start trimming the tree, I noticed a long, fairly deep scratch in the top of the dining room table. After a few deep breaths, and counting to 10 in my head, and both Jax and Cole asking “Mom, what’s wrong?”, I showed them the scratch. Jax was very remorseful. A scratch in the dining room table. This can’t be fixed. And Thank Goodness for that, because in 10 years, when Jax is gone to college, or 20 years, when both boys are gone and we have an empty nest, and TJ and I are trimming the tree without the help of little hands, I will be able to look at this scratch and remember the excitement, the wonder, the little hands that were so eager to decorate the tree and do all things Christmas. Like a physical scar, it will always remind of an event, a time, a place. I am so grateful this memory will be attached to what is otherwise just an inanimate object.
The root of joy is gratefulness...It is not joy that makes us grateful: it is gratitude that makes us joyful. -David Steindl-Rast
No comments:
Post a Comment