The Best of Christmas

The best of Christmas is being together with people we love. Our kids are all going to be home for Christmas. We will spend time with both extended families.

Everything I have said about gifting and not stressing at Christmas is the very real thing. Our Christmas tree has been standing for three weeks in our living room without embellishment. It looked beautiful just standing as the soldier in our living room. This last week, Henry and Johanna dressed it for Christmas. Now it twinkles and we are enjoying it all anew everyday.

It is my sincere hope for each of you that you can find ways to enjoy Christmas and to not stress over things. Your family and friends will more appreciate a well-rested you than an exhausted you and a finished quilt. If you need permission, I GIVE YOU PERMISSION to wrap up an unfinished project. I GIVE YOU PERMISSION to give a copy of The Quiltmaker's Journey to your adult daughter. You taught her these lessons of love and generosity...underline it with a beautiful story.

It is the little things I like best about Christmas...like when the kids are all together...many times we are so reminded that they love the same things they did when they were younger. They like being together most of all. Yesterday at the store, I found Victor and Teddy curled up in one of the offices reading The Quiltmaker's Gift and The Quiltmaker's Journey. They had curled up with some of the display quilts and had their dog, Macy curled up beside them. While Gift is a story they know, they love it again anyway. They have good hearts and aren't afraid to express it by re-reading the parable that many of us love so well. These are young men with adult lives. They laugh with abandon. They can talk politics one moment and then roll about their favorite Calvin & Hobbs antic.

Can't think of a gift better than the laughter and sharing of love of family. Christmas will be full of surprises, fun and hopefully some rest for all of us.

All the Best to You, jill