There have been so many gorgeous moments over this long holiday weekend, our house filled with grown-up children and dogs and food and stories and games and giggling. Like so many, our family is spread far and wide, and so a coming-together like this is—well—special. Noteworthy.

There was a moment in the studio on Friday when some of us had gathered to do a little Christmas painting. Alex said something funny and like the sister she is, Eliza shot back and then sweet Alexis added on and I said, I feel like the mother in a Hallmark Christmas movie. Which is not a good thing, actually. I’d much rather be the young career woman who has left her job in the city to go home to the country where she finds purpose and reconnects with her high school sweetheart.

Except that’s not all-the-way true. While I do wish the Hallmark mothers were a lot less dowdy and a little more interesting in those stories, in real life it can be wonderful to be the mother, or the aunt, or the grandmother; to watch the lives of the children in your life unfold and bloom as they grow into the people they’re meant to be. To stand in witness to the miracle of their maturing.

To be there to experience moments like these.

Families are complicated, and beautiful, and ever-changing. And I offer deep thanks in this moment for the grounding our children give us. They remind us to look toward tomorrow, with hope.

XXOO

30 Days of Joy