Attending the gift. A patch of dirt.

My beautiful friend Vicky gave me 18 pink tulip bulbs for my birthday.

They spent the winter in the fridge.

Today they went easily under ground.

So now we wait.
And watch.
With joy and expecting.

Joy at Christmas:: a birthday

I'm so happy to have the cake 

and the plate

 and the kiddo who wants to decorate

 even when she's called out of bed

as we celebrate 

one we love so very dearly

before and through the Christmas holiday

 

We continue to celebrate the day you were born my Dear.

The last bits of Christmas

We're on the last leg today. The tree is gone, the ornaments careful nestled into tissue and to their nooks and crannies in boxes. Today the house lights will come down* and I'll finally gather and sort all the things that need to be in the big gift wrap box and away it will go until next year. (Perhaps next year I'll share all the things I love gathering for gift wrapping purposes.)

I love beautiful ribbon and well considered wrapping and tags. This year I found the most beautiful tags at Blossom & Twig on Etsy.

These:

This pretty red bird,


















and this fellow with his crown. 









Oh! And these three:

Pears

God Bless Us

Stickers

I purchased a few for next year and look forward to using them. When they arrived in the crafted envelope I was excited and even more excited to find such gracious packaging inside -- I felt like I'd received a gift rather than receiving a purchase.

So before the Lovely Season of Christmas, it's joy, it's busyness and the brilliant Spirit we celebrate is behind us, I say go and gather for next year.

Me? I shall do as Charles Dickens and "honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year."




*My neighbor John, who left for Thailand with friends with his Christmas lights on a timer and doesn't come home until Monday will win the leaving-the-lights-on-longest competition this year!

A Lovely New Tradition

Somewhere, mid month, my daughter suggested we have secret Hannukah pals and give a gift to this secret pal on the last night of Hannukah. (I'll admit that growing up, I too wanted "in" on the eight presents my friend Richie Fienberg was getting while I just had Christmas.)

So we just jumped in. She had us picking names and agreeing to shop in a flash. We didn't quite get everything together for 8th night and decided instead to make it a New Year's Eve idea.

What fun! A little surprise for the ones we love. I picked up a new release DVD for my movie loving husband. My sweet girl found a journal for me and darling necklace with a bird.

I especially liked the idea that there was no real expectation of any kind and in some ways, we could give something we knew someone might have wanted for Christmas, but didn't get. It isn't refined, but the idea of having a secret anyone to give gifts to in our little family is a big joy to me.

How about you? What New Years Eve traditions do you have? How do you make the night significant?

And again, I wish you the happiest of new years in 2012.

Caterpillar update 2

Yesterday some of the over 200 butterflies waiting in there chrysalises were wiggling.  You can't imagine how giddy I'm feeling. I've never witnessed a butterfly emerging. When my kiddos were three and five we had a butterfly hatchery with 3. Those caterpillars did their work and I saw the butterflies, but missed the emerging. I'm guessing that with 200, I'll see the breaking free. Oh, and they came to my office so I won't likely miss them.

One of the gals I work with asked if they'd be pretty "or just brown." I'm don't really care what color they are, I can't get over:
the numbers,
the place,
the process (the climbing, the hanging, the stillness, the creating of the chrysalis, the stillness, the new ones who join late (real late bloomers), the wiggling and now, the color change - the chrysalises are becoming vaguely orange.

Which means, my friend is going to get pretty butterflies.
And I get 200 butterflies (which will be orange).

I asked a science teacher the other day, why they chose this place to congregate and how all of them got to these broad eaves outside my window. He said, they just know where their supposed to go. He assumed they do this every year. I assure you, they haven't in my three years and no one else seems to have noticed them before.

Perhaps a teeny caterpillar newsletter.

Or a way to hear the Creator.

Those broad eaves have come in very handy in our rainy, stormy, rainy weather.

I depart today with a promise that my camera goes too. And I leave you with great anticipation of the miracle of the butterflies.