A lot.
“And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled ’till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.” —Dr. Seuss
My mom’s table settings are always beautiful.
Mom, Kyle and Dad cooking in the kitchen.
Grandma making stuffing.
Mom cooking.
beautiful Colleen
Owen could have spent hours doing this.
Sophie decked out for the holiday.
fresh flowers (a gift from my dad to my mom), vintage linens, dinner plates from France, antique crystal wine glasses …
wrestling with Pop Pop
kisses
Colleen and Katy
Great Grandma gives the best back scratches.
dinner
Thankful, indeed.
“I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.” —G.K. Chesterton
Sophie wanted everyone to be bugs. Or fairies. Or butterflies. Whatever it was, that particular day (it always differs), James wasn’t too pleased.
“If you were born without wings, do nothing to prevent them from growing.” —Coco Chanel
Once again, a wonderful Saturday with wonderful friends.
“What I say is that, if a man really likes potatoes,
he must be a pretty decent sort of fellow.” —A. A. Milne
taken November 16, 2011
“Under my hood I have a hat.
And under that
My hair is flat.” —Karla Kuskin
It’s a good thing I don’t paint faces for a living.
“Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere.” —Carl Sagan
Happy birthday, Dad. I love you!
“There’s something like a line of gold thread running through a man’s words when he talks to his daughter, and gradually over the years it gets to be long enough for you to pick up in your hands and weave into a cloth that feels like love itself.” —John Gregory Brown
Sophie attends Country Hills Montessori three days a week in Fort Thomas. Robert White of White Photography, a CHM parent and professional photographer, took the class pictures this year. I love this one.
This one makes me laugh. This is the face she makes when you say, “smile.” Her Great Aunt Susie, by the way, made her dress. When she and her family visited this summer, Susie asked Sophie what kind of dress she wanted. Sophie immediately said “a dress with pink polka dots that swirls.” And oh did Susie deliver. This dress is the most twirliest dress I have ever seen. Sophie loves it. (Thank you.)
Here’s her class!
“Children are human beings to whom respect is due, superior to us by reason of their innocence and of the greater possibilities of their future.” —Maria Montessori
Today an essay I wrote last year, titled “The Season of Innocence,” is featured on Southern Momentum. If you missed it last year, you can read it again, here. Thank you, Stephanie, for sharing it.
“The innocent and the beautiful have no enemy but time.” —William Butler Yeats
Today I’m featured on The Parent du Jour, as part of their Once Upon a Mom series. You can read my contribution, which includes a delightful story about pulling dry pasta out of Owen’s eyeball, here. And check out the other parents’ stories on the site, too (including my good friend Brian Klems, of The Life of Dad). The site shows how different—and similar—we, as parents, really are.
Thank you, Lisa and Steve, for the feature and taking the time to put together such a wonderful site.
“It’s not only children who grow. Parents do too. As much as we watch to see what our children do with their lives, they are watching us to see what we do with ours. I can’t tell my children to reach for the sun. All I can do is reach for it, myself.” —Joyce Maynard
