Handmade from the Heart

Mom, do you remember the Cabbage Patch Kid doll or the Pound Puppy dog you made by hand for us in Christmases of our youth? Do you know where I keep them? In my cedar chests. Tucked away to share with Porter and London and any other children we're blessed with (hint, hint, up there?) and maybe my own grand kids to come.

I love them more now than I did when they were first discovered peaking from inside my stocking on those Christmas mornings so long ago. Now I understand what it means to stay up late after we had all gone to sleep and paint each doll with the same eye color as its owner and hand-stitch each patch onto the puppies to make them unique. I'm sure I thought Santa was a swell guy on those Christmas mornings; but I think it's time for me to say "Thank-you" to the real creators of those wonderful memories and childhood friends. So, thanks Mom and Dad.

Inspired by memories of a joyful childhood and an insightfully crafty sister (shout out Pal)

I introduce the theme for our 2008 Holidays:

Handmade Holiday

Olen and I talked to our kids about our new holiday theme and London started singing the "Happy Birthday to LaLa" song and Porter asked if that meant "Dad was going to carve [him] a wooden dog, or something?" After clarifing that giving gifts that we think about giving and then making on our own makes them even better because you can't make anything with your hands without putting a little bit of your heart in to it.

Porter is an old soul, as you know, and he totally got it.

He then asked Olen if he knew how to make a bike.