One Cobble at a Time

Halfway Out of the Dark

“I don’t want to put the Christmas tree away.” Kiki said on January first. She wasn’t the only child to express this sentiment. It was not mere chore avoidance, the kids honestly felt wistful and sad about putting away the trappings of the holiday season. I felt the same myself, but we proceeded, because the [...]

After a Good Christmas

Morning dawned on the day after Christmas and I dove back into work with a sigh of relief. It is not that I dislike the holiday, but I am in the middle of many projects which were interrupted by festivities. Perhaps this is why I was not able to fully develop a holiday glow in [...]

After the Shopping

One thing that getting older has taught me is that I often become something I never expected to be. I began parenthood as a stay at home mother who devoted 90% of her creative energy to things which benefited the kids. I thought that was the best kind of mother to be. These days I’m [...]

Christmas Looms

At 2 am this morning I was convinced that I’d ruined Christmas, as if Christmas was my job to get right for my entire family instead of a mutual creation. But 2 am is not a rational hour and the illogical thoughts capered through my brain refusing to calm down or cooperate. I knew that [...]

A Mixture of December Thoughts

My December wasn’t busy when I viewed it from the safety of Thanksgiving weekend. I could look at the calendar–mostly empty–and hope that in between the holiday shipping there would be time for some peace. If I look back at the calendar days I’ve just been through, they still look pretty empty, but I know [...]

Building a Family Culture for a Happy Holiday Season

It is December 5th and we only have two wrapped Christmas gifts under our tree. They were deposited there by my sister who visited last weekend. Usually the tree starts to accumulate presents within a day or two of when it goes up. This year the tree has been lovely for more than a week [...]

Decorating for Christmas

Last year I performed an experiment. Partly I did it because I was too stressed and busy to do anything else, but I also wanted to see what would happen. Instead of orchestrating the holiday decorating, I pulled out the boxes and waited to see whether the kids would put things up. I left the [...]

Thanksgiving

The elapsed time from when we gathered to pray over the food and when the first child asked to be excused from the table was about fifteen minutes. I momentarily considered denying the petition and requiring more family togetherness, trying to stretch out the Thanksgiving meal. Except I could see that two other children were [...]

Bright Holidays in the Dark Season

It was dark when I came up the stairs at 5:30 pm. My office has no windows, so if I work in the afternoon, I don’t notice the fading daylight. I just emerge and discover the world to be already dark. It makes me understand why extra lights are such a feature of the holiday [...]

Halloween

The day had a plan. Most of my days do. It began with getting Kiki up early so that she could don her elf ears and make up. Fortunately I only had to poke her awake and then I went back to bed for another hour. The result was quite lovely. In so many ways [...]