We were to bring cooked carrots to Aunt Brenda's Christmas Eve feast, so while our boys slept, Lucy and I set to work. She peeled diligently. I offered periodic tips to help her perfect the process. In the meantime, we talked and joked and laughed.
No big deal, certainly. But those are the kind of moments I crave when life gets chaotic.
Halfway through the carrots, my dad walked by. "Why don't you use these?" he asked, nodding to a nearby bag of pre-peeled baby carrots.
"Because then I'd miss out on this," I said nodding to my little girl, up to her elbows in orange, determination written all over her face.
Dad smiled in approval.
Mom came in a few minutes after that. "There's nothing I love more than the sound of you two chattering away in here," she said. I smiled, almost remembering the carrot peeling conversations we must have shared together when I was small. We agreed that such moments are the real treasures - the real gifts of life.
Soon it was time to take our steaming carrots to the party!
After savoring Chris and Brenda's amazing German Christmas feast, we gathered in the theater room for my favorite production of the year.
Uncle Brent was nominated as narrator and may have earned the part for life. Lucy was an angel. Spencer was a shepherd, although at the end of the pageant he was the Christmas star, and during our white elephant game he was a reindeer.
Speaking of white elephants,
that was fun.
And for the rest of the night there was laughter,
(nick's calendar)
there was anticipation.
There was a little baby Jesus,
wrapped in swaddling clothes,
lying in a manger.
There was L O V E.
(and there was a really late night putting together train tracks!!)
3 comments:
That picture of those girls singing with their mouths in perfect "O" shapes is just precious. You can almost imagine these cousins, years from now, gathering around a piano in song.
I totally know how you feel with your carrot peeling moment. Those moments are just the best... and I too often am in too much of a hurry to really take advantage of them.
You are a master at capturing precious moments that speak to our hearts!
Whoever gave you that camera (Wes!)did a good thing.....
REMEMBERING becomes paramount in so many ways doesn't it!
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