Presence, not presents

Who doesn't love a little heartfelt gift giving? And yet, it's easy (for me) to get sidetracked by all the things "to do": cookies, gifts, sending gifts, advent ideas, etc., etc., etc. That's why it's great to have a three year old around, repeating the things I say. It gives me some perspective. As I was wrapping gifts to send out yesterday (that are now done and out of my hands!), Jacob was dancing around playing games, getting crazy and being his usual ball-of-energy self. And I heard him say, mostly to himself, "I'm just so stressed out right now." I had to laugh. Out loud. And stop what I was doing so I could ask him if he really just said that. Oh, goodness. Okay. Thank you, darling.

So, I'm working on my presence now. Being present. Enjoying the present. And being able to see the humour when a little boy holds up a mirror of my behaviour. 

Here's a little project to help me with this (and learn something new along the way). My friend, Karen, has a photographer friend and she's hooked up a few of us for some photo lessons from him. We had our first gathering the other night. Super fun and informative. I need to do lots of homework: taking pictures! I'm going to post at least one a day (or try really hard to) and see what happens. Feedback welcome :)