Wonderful Things

There are a lot of wonderful things I’ve discovered this Christmas. Some are gifts from others, some are gifts I’m giving this holiday season. Some are just wonderful discoveries I’ve made in December of 2018. I have a lot to say about what’s coming next year, but for now, I just wanted to show you what has recently gotten me excited.

The Wonky Donkey children’s book. Get it and read it to your kids or grandkids. It will have you laughing.

My new Hawaii Fire bag, made from old jackets and tarps from Hawaii Fire, lined with Hawaiian print.

My JamsWorld patches to make a patchwork quilt.

My new All For Love journal from my narrator, the wonderful J.D. Hart. Thank you, J.D.

My new Blind For Love tote bag I purchased in Hawaii. Love it!

My new Brighton Purse with Love and a heart on the front.

But most of all, I’ve just been excited for all the wonderful family time I’ve had. Everyone is healthy (relatively) and happy, though much of my immediate family is separated. I’m grateful for family, for all the little ones coming along I get to make new memories with, for my new apartment (we actually got to sleep on our new bed last 2 nights!). I thoroughly enjoyed our trip to Hawaii with our daughter and the grands.

It’s been an abundant year in all respects. So, I leave you with my favorite passage from the Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams Bianco, which reminds me so much of the spirit of Christmas:

“Real isn’t how you are made,’ said the Skin Horse. ‘It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.’

‘Does it hurt?’ asked the Rabbit. 

‘Sometimes,’ said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. ‘When you are Real you don’t mind being hurt.’ 

‘Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,’ he asked, ‘or bit by bit?’ 

‘It doesn’t happen all at once,’ said the Skin Horse. ‘You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”

Hope your Christmas is the best ever, and that you remember all those who love you and whom you love, with great abandon. Remember, no one ever said you could love too much!