believe.

"I totally believe in magic.  Magical things have come true for me time after time after time." - Stevie Nicks

(and if my girl Stevie says it, you know it's true.)

I have some news to share this month.  I am pleased (and surprised) to announce that this month marks three full years of The Little Things!  That's right - my little blog about nothing in particular is entering it's fourth year!  I can't believe the blog is going to be four.  It's growing up so fast...where does the time go? 

(I don't mean to brag, but I recently had a parent/teacher conference at the blog's preschool and was told the blog has excellent fine motor skills and is able to follow complicated sets of instructions.  They also said the blog is also able to get itself dressed for outdoor winter play without any help from a teacher...that includes snow boots and mittens!  (Between you and me I am also pretty confident the blog is reading way above grade level.))

Obviously, I'm more than a little looped.  

It's the holidays people.

The 2014 holiday challenge in our house has been the "big question".  The how-exactly-do-the-toys-get-under-the-tree-and-who-puts-them-there question.  My eight year-old son has been asking very pointed questions about the jolly old purveyor of Christmas loot, and I, like any good parent, have been aggressively dodging them.  (*My new book Parenting Made Easy by Pretending You Can't Hear 'Cause You're in the Shower is due for release in April of 2015*).

I'm finding that rather than focusing on the details of the actual toy distribution it is much easier to simply focus on the magic.  The idea that the impossible can sometimes be possible - no matter how much our logical minds tell us it can't be.  Just because something is improbable, I tell my son, doesn't mean it is impossible.

After all, David conquered Goliath didn't he?  How could a small shepherd boy with nothing more than a rock and a sling take down a trained warrior three times his size?  (*For a great interview with Malcolm Gladwell on the story of David and Goliath click here.)   Or more recently, Malala Yousafzai was shot by a Taliban fighter for defending her right (and the rights of all children) to an education and became the youngest Nobel Peace Prize laureate in history at just 17 years old.  (I can't stop reading about this girl...obsessed.)

I'm not suggesting these amazing stories were the result of magic...just that sometimes the improbable is, in fact, possible.  

I'm also not saying that magic always has to be so monumental.  My cousin, for example, is donating her time at a school teaching children about gardening and nutrition.  Magic.  My neighbor (and friend) takes in foster dogs until they can find loving families in permanent homes.  Magic.  Toys For Tots, The United Way and The Salvation Army - all making magic happen for families in need this time of year.  Want to make some magic happen yourself?  Click here.

I want to believe in magic.  Not just for my kids, but for me.  

I have to believe the holidays are more than a sanity test to see how much the average American mom can take before she cracks in half and eats an entire box of Christmas cookies she bought at the PTA fundraiser (not that I did that).  There is more to this season than twice weekly Target runs and unopened Amazon boxes piling up in the garage...I just know there is.  Because I've seen it.

So while I can't bring myself to look my son in the eye and tell him something I believe to be untrue, I have no problem explaining to him all the ways I believe magic really has and really is happening around us all the time.  Then I try to end the conversation by saying that if it wasn't for magic I could never have ended up with a kid like him. 

...and who could argue with that kind of logic?  (wink)

Happy holidays friends.

xoxo - juli