Christmas Candle

A Christmas candle is a lovely thing;
It makes no noise at all,
But softly gives itself away;
While quite unselfish, it grows small.

Snoopy's Christmas

I love a surprise. However, I will try with all my might to find out what it is. For example, a few years ago, Scott mentioned he ordered me a present from a website. After he was asleep I went into the history window of Safari to find out what websites he had browsed! I've even been known to scan our bank statements for any big surprise purchases. When we were first married, Scott was shocked at how childish I became when presents were to be had. I still shake, weigh, and measure each wrapped gift with hopes that I will guess the surprise inside. After seven years of marriage, Sco has surrendered to my begging. I, along with our children, get to open a present on Christmas Eve just to tide me over until morning. He has also learned to order any web purchases from his work computer and then have them shipped to his office.

This obession started early in my life. I have a sister, Heidi, that was my partner in crime. Come Christmas time, my mom stashed our presents high up in a closet in her office. Heidi and I would often open the closet door just to gaze up at the bags. Bags from Nordstrom or ZCMI meant clothes! Since Heidi and I were the same size for many years, my mom, bless her heart, would ask Heidi to try on my Christmas outfit to make sure it would fit and vice versa. Little did my mom know, bless her heart again, that we would head down to our room after the fittings to disclose every detail about what our new outfits looked like.

I know I'm somewhat of a stinker for being so snoopy, but for me 'tis the season!

Ashley's Amazement

Yesterday Ashley helped me unload the dishwasher. Her favorite thing to do is take out her sippy cups and line them up on the counter. She discovered a valve to one of her sippies and worked hard and long to clip it into position. After she finally finished her task she handed me the assembled sippy excitedly explaining, "I did it! I did it!" She fell silent for a second, looked at her hands and said, "I did it with these hands." What a wonderful thing to discover.