Two of my favorite movies are “The Sound of Music” and “A Charlie Brown Christmas”. Of course I forced my family to watch these every Christmas. And then one year, much to my delight, my children started a new tradition: surprising me, while trying to one-up each other, with wonderful and thoughtful gifts related to these movies. An added challenge was to make their sensitive mother cry tears of joy when she opened the gift. Now those gifts are my favorites things!
Which brings me to my topic today: My real favorite things. My favorite things are not things. They are the people I love so much it hurts my heart to think about it. Amidst the great stack of advice I am often doling out, I don’t always remember to tell them, though I think my (now grown) kids know, I am their NUMBER ONE FAN. I am richly blessed to have a great family. I have a favorite picture of my husband and kids on a train trip we took in Alaska. Stuck in the frame I left a fortune cookie saying: “Your family is young, gifted, and attractive.” To me, they are all of these things and so much more.
First about my husband. Let’s call him the Rock of Gibraltar, as he is very stoic. We met in graduate school on a canoe trip. “In a canoe, the brawn is up front and the brains are in the back”, I joked with him. So I was brawn and he was brains on the canoe trip, which meant we didn’t move very fast, but we did end up headed in the right direction. My husband grew up on a farm, and is very pragmatic. He is a guy of few words, and he can fix anything, with or without the manual, which he never seems to need. From hunting and fishing, to programming a computer, to problem solving, to leading teams of people, he is just the guy you want running the show.
Last year, my husband and our son cut down two trees. Really tall ones! A few years ago they built a shed. In their spare time. On a weekend! I have no idea how my husband knows all of the things he knows, I just know I admire it. And I admire that he’s taught our kids to be competent, self-sufficient, and good problem solvers too. My daughter and I coined a phrase to describe him: “annoyingly competent”. This is because he is just plain good at everything he endeavors to do. And sometimes just a little bit smug about it, although he is pleasant and handsome in his smugness, which is another annoyingly good quality. Now I know Jesus is my rock and salvation saving me from myself on most days, but in addition to that, God gave me a husband who is a rock to shelter us in the storms.
So on to our kids. In my office at work, I used to have a picture of my two standing on an iced-over pond. I sheepishly called the picture “my kids walk on water”. A co-worker walked in my office and noticed it, saying, “that’s so great – I feel the same way about my kids!”. I think we all do. Parenting is a humbling and at times overwhelming responsibility. Even more than that, it is a source of great pride and joy. I am not ashamed to brag about my “kids”, who are no longer kids, but young adults, and they still tell me I do it too much. This is something I am working on, but as you can see, have some trouble moderating. My husband’s aunt once remarked on this saying, “maybe you should call them your hobbies, people have a passion for their hobbies”. And the label stuck, so I lovingly do.
About my “hobbies”. Our daughter is beautiful, clever, gifted, and a great friend. She is also a math whiz and should be proud of her accomplishments. She has a good head on her shoulders and a heart of gold. In high school she lived and breathed math and basketball and we had great adventures, traveling with the team, me playing Sudoko in the stands, trying to tell her things from up there using sign language, like how are you? are you hungry? are you ok? why did they call that foul? She encouraged me to accompany her on a mission trip to Peru where she graced me with great patience and her good Spanish skills – we were “Madre y Hija”. She had the kids all around her wanting to take their picture with the girl with the beautiful smile. Two little girls had saved the picture she took with them the last time she was there. She was a spark of brightness in their world. Our daughter is married now to a terrific young man whom she met in marching band. He is more hardworking than anyone I’ve ever met, and has a great big heart for our daughter and for his family. We are blessed to have him in ours.
We are also blessed with a strong and handsome son. His charm started the minute he was born, and his sister and her friends all doted on him as he grew up into a person who possesses great rapport with people from every walk of life, young and old. He has an earnest voice, a well tuned ear, a photographic memory, and an appreciation for quirky humor. He speaks German quite well and we used to have a game where we pretended to be German while sitting in the airport or at a restaurant. When his sister left for college and we both were missing her, he invited me out to Mother-Son dinners. That morphed into us trying new recipes, which morphed into him being an excellent cook. He loves movies and has inherited my eclectic taste in music. He has a beautiful, strong, and enigmatic young woman in his life and she has a two year old who has brightened and enriched all of our lives. They are kindred and adventurous spirits and although I am a natural worrier, I am nonetheless happy for them as they embark on their latest adventure out west in the mountains.
So this is a glimpse at my typical Christmas card. I brag about my “hobbies” and talk about what we did that year. Christmas is my favorite time because it reminds me of all the traditions, including the “Mom’s favorites” one. With this post I am giving my family some lead time to let them know, just in case, there are about 73 shopping days, 9 hours, and 35 minutes until Christmas. Also this is my way of returning the gift back to my family in the form of what I want for Christmas more than anything. No, its not World Peace, although that would be nice. I want them to have the best things in life, my favorite things: to cry more tears of joy than tears of pain, to listen to a good soundtrack, to travel and enjoy the outdoors, to be “annoyingly competent” at what they do, and to embrace Linus’s soliloquy on “what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown”.
In closing, 🎼 … (with arms outstretched) …🎶
Climb every mountain Search high and low Follow every byway Every path you knowClimb every mountain Ford every stream Follow every rainbow ‘Till you find your dreamA dream that will need All the love you can give Every day of your life For as long as you live 🎶(Lyrics by Jordan Smith)