Little Things
Billy has acquired a couple more crucial words this December and they’re usually heard from the car, screaming.
“Iss-iss liiiiiiss!”, which – translated – mean CHRISTMAS LIGHTS. It’s nice to know the Christmas torch is being passed onto my offspring and they, too, get hysterical by the smallest, cheeriest of things. So, on that note, things are speeding up around here with our final week and bit countdown and I’m popping in with a small happies post today — some Christmas things we’ve been enjoying this past week and a few memories I want to store in this little memory vault of mine.
Annual Santa photo.
Which was less ‘fun family morning out’ and more Griswolds-who-fight, racking up three tantrums, a nappy situation, a near car-smash and a fighting couple who desperately need a holiday and some space.
Family life, man. Love/hard always and always and repeat forever more.
Twinkle lights and sleeping babies. Heaven.
Making new December traditions: The Pavlova
A pretty stress-free cooking activity to share with your kids. Besides, no childhood is complete without beater-licking.
Billy is all one cherry for you, one cherry for me.
Annual Secret Santa party with friends.
The kids are slowly starting to outnumber us, or at least it feels like it. It’s a loud mess of chaos but to see all our children growing up together, every parent looking after every kid, no such thing as ‘another person’s child’, it’s so good for the soul.
Annual Santaland trip.
Ella’s been asking about the day she gets to ride the Christmas train since, like, September. These things are terribly exciting for a three year old, and even more exciting is the fact her brother is big enough to join her.
I love watching my kids’ faces when they are happy. Like this photo.
Slays me.
And always a favourite Christmas tradition, checking out the Myer display windows.
Loved the retro theme this year.
And the message of the little story about the lost dog who finds his way home.
*
Last night Joel and I went to a counselling session, a thing we do every six weeks or so to keep learning better communication skills and iron out our misunderstandings in a healthy environment. To wrap up the session, we were asked to mention one thing the other person was good at — something we really appreciated, and without missing a beat, Joel turned to me and said, “I really appreciate how much you love Christmas. It makes me happy to be around it and the festive cheer rubs off on me, too.”
It’s the small things, you guys. In marriages, in families, in life.
At the end of our session, which was one of the more heated ones we’ve had, our therapist said, “You know, I hate to say it but life is short. You just have to make it the best you can.”
And I thought: that’s just it isn’t it?
You just have to make it the best you can.
The Red Tent 
4 Responses to “Little Things”
That photo of Joel, though. :p
He’s a good sport 🙂
We are Christmas lovers as well. There is just something magical about this time of year love how your husband appreciates it. Looks like you guys have amazing Christmas events in your town.
There sure is a stack of things our city puts on this time of year! I think most of all I love seeing the Christmas lights everywhere. Happy nearly Christmas!