127. Small boys with cheesy smiles.
128. Pudgy hands with elastic band wrists.
129. An hour or two, just the two of us, to play.
130. The gap between his front teeth.131. Watching him learn the word "light!"132. Hearing him ask where his sister is by saying "Nan-nie?"133. Playing peek-a-boo.134. His laughter. Part hysteria-part chuckle-and all joy.
135. Family in town so that I can nip to get a new haircut on a Saturday morning.
136. Sleep-overs at Granny's house.137. Hearing Anne call her Granny "My best fwiend."138. A little girl and a Granny with a equally full "love tanks."
139. New baseboards in the family room140. Having a family room.
141. Christmas tree lights in a dark room.142. New fallen snow.143. Small nose prints on the windows, breath fogging the glass, exclamations of "SNOW, MUMMA!"144. Very obese Santas and pictures of small boys sliding right off Santa's non-existent lap.
145. Hanging pictures in a house that is becoming a home.146. Books left open on the floor.
147. Sugar cookie candles.148. Homemade gingersnap cookies.
149. The sparkle of sugar on a warm cookie.150. Time to make homemade soup.
151. Two fathers that give up their Saturday to roll paint on the walls.
152. A clean floor.
153. Time in the sling, quieting a fussy boy simply by holding him close to my heart.154. A very long girl in a princess dress, asking for her turn in the sling, after a tumble. 155. Wrestling her in and then carrying my long girl for a while, her head on my shoulder, her words "I love being close, Mum" in my ear.
156. A venti peppermint mocha brought home in the snow and cold by a hardworking husband.157. The hardest working man I know, eager to give of himself by giving us a home.158. Tense words on the stairs because I know he needs to rest but he wants to finish "just one more thing."159. Making up.
160. A warm house.161. A garage to pull my Earth Destroyer into, out of the cold.
162. The view out of my kitchen window, straight into a forest, now heavy with snow.163. The quiet of snow, the dense sound of silence.164. Feeling pleasantly homebound.
165. Music that feeds the soul.
I'm working my way to a Thousand Gifts....on days like today, I feel the thankfulness, the gratitude, welling up.
