Thursday, Dec 6, 2012

Tonight my husband came to pick me up after an evening meeting.  The kids were in the car, too. Just before they picked me up, they drove past a dead-end street that we’ve driven past many times, but not at night (and not in December).  On this one-block dead-end street were a lot of houses decorated with Christmas lights; nearly every house was lit up, and some of them were crazy decorated.  The kids freaked!  Lots of screaming (with pleasure, not crying).  After I got in the car, we drove *very* slowly down this little street and took it all in.  The kids took turns standing on the arm rests and looking through the minivan’s skylight.  They were enraptured.  It was as if they had never seen such Christmas lights before (they have).

And earlier today the kids ate breakfast on new (inexpensive) china instead of melamine.  I bought the set yesterday, as I want them to practice using breakable dishes before we have our first family dinner on our good china at Christmas.  They made such a fuss over it, it was very cute.  ”Mommy, the table looks so nice!”  ”Look how everything matches!” “Are we going to eat on these new dishes all the time?”

For parents, these are incredible moments.  Through kids’ eyes, the world is so new and magical.  For our non-parent friends (we still have a few!), I can imagine that it might be difficult to see the appeal of what must seem like little things.  But it is the little things that make all the work worth it.