Outside

The holiday season can be hard on our little ones, no?  All of this excitement, plenty of extra sugar, the dangling carrot of "be good because Santa is watching" (not that we really dangle that carrot much around here), the hustle and bustle of busy parents and to-do lists, and the whole "hurry up and wait" feeling.  It's magical, yes, but it can be exhausting.

All of this combined with several other factors... which I'll save for another post, another day... and we all needed to blow off some steam here at the end of our week.  So, while N was at school Friday, we took a nature walk.  To nowhere special except the backyard... but it was special.  It was like we all escaped from something for a couple of hours, and we could breathe again when we had been suffocating.

baby straps into the Ergo and zips up snug and warm in Mama's jacket

the sun is low in the December sky

our shadows are long and L chases them

bubbling over with the joy of running

we play a game of hide and seek, and I hide behind each tree while L seeks me and baby hands explore the textures of tree bark

there are splashes of color in the midst of a bleak landscape

there is peace in this December stillness

that is hard to describe with words.

Maybe we just need to stop all the hustle and bustle and focus on the quiet, still, silent coming of a Baby King.