Sunday, November 20, 2011

Little Helpers

This is a weekend rich in tradition for us.  Jason heads up north with his dad and brother, and the kiddos and I find ourselves in activity including such things as decorating the house for Christmas, making ornaments for gifts, watching our first official viewing of Elf for the season, and meeting Grandma for lunch. 

Admittedly, decorating the house has historically been, at times, more stressful than joyful for me as the boys have been so anxious to help (um, so I may have mentioned a few times that I am a bit of a control freak and have many "Martha" tendencies).  I would fret over things that didn't matter as the boys insisted on unpacking the bins of decorations in their little boy ways. 

I'm not sure what it was this weekend (well, I'm pretty confident that it could have only been a peace from God), but this year was very different.  My vantage point had totally changed.  I saw the boys as helpful, and I truly appreciated their giddiness as they removed decorations from the bins.  Of course, some innate personality quirks did take over, and I did have to do some directing of where to place things.  However, I did allow the boys a little creative freedom.
Evidence of the creative freedom - you will find these little crayon cars "parked" in various places in the village.  Here they are at the Snow Factory.

A wise friend has told me many times (and far more eloquently than I'm going to write here) that we need to cherish each and every day and not get caught up in the little things.

Now, the test will be this - will I really let anyone help decorate the Christmas tree and will I NOT move ornaments after little ones go to bed?  Hmmm ... that will be a test!