Unpacking

Ahh...

Christmas is over.

I am home alone from holiday fun-making with family far and near. Time to unpack and put away all the new "stuff". This year it didn't take me nearly as long...a fact for which I am nothing but grateful. How I used to dread coming home from multiple Christmases and unpacking toys and other gizmos. I usually tried to prepare by cleaning out toyboxes and closets the week before Christmas, to make room to stuff our stuff.

But as the kids get older, I find the joy of Christmas coming in packages impossible to wrap.

Like the fun we had on our "family shopping day"...a tradition we instituted a few years ago in which we spend our time and money having fun together instead of separately trying to outdo one another with surprise "things." We laughed, we ate, we relaxed...and our children bought the things they wanted...with money to spare! How wonderful for me to know that they value our time together more than their spending limit. And that they have non-greedy hearts that know when they have enough and don't feel compelled to spend it all plus a little bit more. Merry Christmas to me!

And through a happy happenstance, my parents were able to join us on our "Christmas Morning" the next day where not a single gift was unwrapped, but we shared breakfast and stories and a little piece of life.

Then it was on to the other grandparents' house where we laughed at each other playing wii and then clung to each other through the freak bout of Christmas Flu that descended on the entire household. There is no one I'd rather be in a foxhole like that with than Papaw! Not generally known for his domestic endeavors, he cared for us all while we were too sick to care for ourselves or each other.

We lived through it to celebrate another day with my siblings and the various young children they've brought into our Christmases. It was fun to watch the little ones tear into their toys...but even more fun to see how excited my own child was to give a gift she had put her heart into. Parker and Hillary seemed happy with what they were given but equally so to see others receive. Especially my youngest sister who was surprised with an engagement ring!

Through it all, it was the stuff you can feel but not touch that seemed to matter.

Hillary basked in a budding new relationship (more about that later...maybe:) while Parker made up for lost time with my brother, who lives half a country away. (Fair warning to the ducks and geese!) And that is how I came to be home without them this post-Christmas day.

Unpacking my thoughts.

In a house not filled with stuff.

With a heart thats overflowing.