Photos by Lizzy Flanagan
This year, the two major gift shows that usually fall just about a week apart, fell nearly two whole weeks apart. Though a very slight schedule change, its results were profound for me.
I found a week. FOUND. A. WEEK.
It's quite honestly better than any amount of money that you could find in a jacket you haven't worn since last year or under a seat at the movie theater. (I did actually find $60 once in a parking lot….it's even better than that.) Time, it seems, is our most precious commodity. It is one of the very few things we cannot buy and that we have absolutely no control over. I found 4 whole week days and one long(ish) weekend! WIN!
So, in an effort to relish and be responsible with this bright and shiny gift, I naturally made a list of projects I wanted to accomplish. Obviously. Most of them were around the house, making it unnecessary for me to get out of my pajamas, or you know, wash my hair. You're welcome honey.
My husband called it my 'week of Sundays'. He would come in after work, look around at the mess I had undoubtedly created and say: 'Mmmmmm! Smells like a Sunday in here!” Fortunately for him, I cleaned a few things (the fridge!) and made him my White Bean Chicken Chili.
One of my projects was to go through, edit and organize my photos from last year with the intention of printing a few and perhaps making a book or two.
None of those things happened, but I did get pretty distracted by watching the previous 12 months of my life go by and remembering all the fun stuff, and the little moments. There is a whole lot that I forgot to write about and a bunch of stuff I meant to share…so I thought I would go about that here for a bit. I will go backwards, cause somehow that makes sense to me, and start with our Christmas card.
Ironically, I have never, not once in my life sent out a Christmas card. It's slightly embarrassing, as someone who MAKES Christmas cards and is a member of the Greeting Card Association for Pete's sake…but frankly, as a wholesaler/retailer and person who usually has to travel to see her family at Christmas, I have never quite had the time or the energy.
But I LOVE receiving people's cards and the photos they put in them… I hang them up in the house and then feel appropriately terrible about throwing them out in, ahem, March….
It makes me feel like I know for a moment what is going on with everyone, what they look like now, how many kids or dogs they have, It makes me feel a little bit loved. And I wanted to participate in that. I wanted that to be a tradition that Coach and I did. I wanted to be able to look back at a bunch of years of our family Christmas cards and see how goofy we were. So, fortunately for me, I have a professional photographer at my beck and call (I have to bribe her with snacks and smelly candles) and a very photogenic dog-child.
Since the Mini was one of my very favorite things about this year, she had to be in the family photo! Only one shot got to be included in the card, but there were a bunch of good out-takes that I thought I would share. Since I am so often behind the camera, it is rare to have a decent photo of myself. Thanks to Lizzy, we have some from Christmas 2012 to look back on!
Contrary to my list of projects for this 'found' week, this was one list-item that actually got stamped, mailed and crossed off the list! Those of you who have been following this blog for awhile will also be relieved to know that our Christmas tree (pictured) was on the curb the first week of January. I didn't even cry this year.
So there you are, tradition started. Here's hoping it makes the list this year! Heh.
What would YOU do with a found week??
xoxo
