The FuzzmopsFamily in Motion

My parents have always marched to their own drummer. It’s probably one of my favorite aspects of who they are as people. They aren’t afraid to just do their own thing.

While other families were having brunch and giving bouquets of flowers, my family again blazed their own trail. For Mother’s Day this year, my dad gave me a 7lb can of chocolate pudding.

7lbs… of pudding.

He said he tried to get me a can of vanilla too but they were all out. I love my family.

Santa brought Chloe an ‘I Dig Dinosaurs T-Rex Skeleton’ excavation kit for Christmas this year. Armed with her little silver hammer, chisel and a brush Chloe donned her safety glasses and began digging through the sandy block to uncover the dinosaur bones.

I got an old box top out to try to keep the sand from flying everywhere. But, in the course of her digging the little stones did manage to fly about. This is definitely not an activity to be done in a carpeted area

Chloe carefully chiseled and brushed and the bones began to show themselves. She could hardly wait to get them out and assemble her T-Rex.

Dinosaur Has Been Dug!

In December one of our family traditions is to setup our little Christmas village. We’ve got churches, town hall, a skating pond and my favorite a radio station. Putting it up and arranging it just right is something we look forward to each year.

Our Christmas Town

On Monday school was closed because of the snow. “Snow Day.” Those two words are like magic to a child. Chloe and I spent part of the morning sledding down the snow pile that the plow made at the end of our driveway. A perfect start to a surprise day off.

Too much snow for the buses to get through.

When we got up on Sunday morning we found that the snow elves had deposited nearly two feet of fluff in our world. Few things excite a kid like the simple pleasure of playing in the snow. We quickly got our snow clothes on and headed for the door. Chloe stepped out first into the powder.

On Friday night the PTA at Chloe’s school sponsored an evening of decorating gingerbread houses. With a gumdrop lined roof, heart-shaped candy cane skylight and pretzel windows I think she did a great job!  Now our livingroom smells deliciously gingerbready.

Chloe's Gingerbread House

During the holiday season my sentimentality kicks in to overdrive. I’m sure it is due in part to the completion of a year; the block of time in which we measure our lives. Every single one is significant. Just as the man who is 90 or the child who is 7.

In 2009 after 88 years, my Great Aunt Sophie left this world. In life her universe was small, her pockets were shallow but her heart was big and full. Everything that she gave, she gave with love and meaning. We all know that she loved us all very much.

Two years ago for Christmas she gave me a jar of pistachio nuts with a big gold bow on the top. I didn’t realize until mid-summer that I’d been moving this jar of nuts around the house from room to room. They were no longer being eaten. They were just quietly sitting with their big, gold bow.

Aunt Sophie's Pistachios - 2 Years Later

There is of course some humor in saying that Aunt Sophie is nuts and it does bring levity to loss but, I really think she is. These pistachios mean something to me. They symbolize a piece of her; un-fancy, simple but above all good. We’ll miss “Aunt Snowfee” on Christmas Day but we have lots of warm memories and stories to remember her by.

I love our little, wonky tree outside. It always looks so sweetly awkward to me. Kenny roped some lights through its droopy branches for the holidays.

Our Little Charlie Brown Tree

Chloe has been wearing her Christmas bow headband to school all week. The wonder, the excitement of Christmas in children is fun to observe. My joy comes in watching Chloe’s excitement. I don’t know when I learned to be happy for other people, but I know that I love it.

Chloe and her Christmas Bow

Chloe is my daily reminder that life is so much more fun when you enjoy the small moments. The accumulation of all those small moments throughout the course of a day send you to bed smiling.

“All I want for Christmas is..”

The Fuzzmops' Christmas Tree

There was a time in my life when we were as my mom says, “as poor as church mice.” Growing up this way can really make you long for material things. I can distinctly remember being in elementary school and thinking that kids who went on vacation to Florida were rich. It seemed like such a luxury; an unattainable goal. I could never have imagined my life becoming what it is today.

Those same feelings of finding importance in material objects have driven me to work hard. While we don’t live in a palace and we don’t drive Porsches, we have a pretty comfortable life. And so, here I am with my nice things. In some ways it has been a painful lesson to learn that the nicest things of all are what I’ve had all along. The things that were free: Love, good health and family.

Sure, it sounds cliché. I know it does. Maybe my eyes are open because I don’t have to wonder if I can pay the rent or feed my child. I think my deep thoughts from the heated leather seats of my car while I listen to satellite radio on the way to my office in the morning. I don’t think about them while I’m riding a bicycle to the supermarket with my daughter on the cross bar, like my dad did with me because we couldn’t afford a car. I don’t know if I could have really learned this lesson until I found out that possessions don’t fill your hollow spaces inside.

What Do I Want For Christmas?

The value of a family’s love is immeasurable. It can drive you to overcome obstacles of fear, uncertainty; it can make you be a better you.

I want my family to spend Christmas day together. I want to have a nice meal together. I want us laugh and play and just be our best selves together. I want everyone to go to bed on Christmas night secure in the fact that we love each other.

“The greatest thing you’ll ever learn – Is just to love and be loved in return.” - eden ahbez