We had a wonderful Christmas this year - calm, relatively stress-free, and full of togetherness.
One thing I have always tried to instill in my children is the importance of family - being there to support each other no matter what.
This year, my youngest showered all of us with her love and demonstrated her belief in the connectedness of family.
I knew she'd been working on Christmas gifts for all of us - she always hand-makes everything, usually starting in August! This year, she asked me for some of my old canning jars - I have a huge box of them in the garage - but she kept mum about why she needed them.
The closer it got to Christmas, the more often she mentioned needing to work on "PAPOP," her name for the gift she was making for all of us.
I could tell she was getting concerned about finishing in time, so I casually mentioned that she could wait and give whatever it was to each of us for our birthdays - but she insisted this wasn't possible.
I thought she was being too hard on herself - and being a little stubborn.
On Christmas morning, her reason for needing to finish, all the hours she spent sequestered in her room, and that last-minute dash to Office Depot for more ink, all became apparent.
The whole family gathered to open her gift to us: Pick A Peck of Poems.
We each had an antique canning jar filled with 52 poems - one for each week of the year - all written by Melissa for us.
Here is what the gift tag said:
These jars are full of poems written solely by myself. The poems are the same for each person and are labeled 1-52. Starting on the first Sunday of January everyone will read the first poem. There is a poem for every Sunday of the year. The jars are easily transported so that no matter where each of us is, every Sunday we open our jar and read the appropriate poem.
Love,
Melissa
I am so taken by her thoughtfulness and the love she poured into this gift. What a wonderful young woman my daughter is!
I can't wait to read the first poem!
