Gift #1: SIMPLICITY

My sister is making a visit for the first time to my home here in Vienna. I am so thrilled that she is going to be able to see my space, walk through my life, and experience our “normal” that will seem so foreign to her! In keeping with all things that I am … I’ve planned an itinerary for her days … all with the flexibility to ditch the plan if need be. The thing I am most looking forward to is the “being”. The times we spend around the table talking, laughing, joking, and crying. These are the things that will be so endearing in person that phone, emails and Skype cannot clearly convey.

As I’m gearing up for her visit, I’m also gearing up for our annual Elledge Christmas Experiences. Quick cliff notes for those not familiar with this tradition: instead of giving tangible gifts that end up in the bottom of the toy box … or returned … or never used, we chose a very long time ago to give “experiences”. We’ve done big … like a surprise trip to London. We’ve done simple … like nachos and a movie. The girls never know what the “experience” is gonna be. It’s always a surprise. It’s become tradition.

I’ve been racking my brain thinking about what these “experiences” are supposed to be … and I’ve come up with this idea of making every “experience” centered on one word. Tomorrow we are going to “experience” the word: SIMPLICITY. No more on that because Addison checks up on me via the Blog so “mum’s the word. However, next week I’ll fill you in!

And … speaking of simplicity … yesterday I decorated the house for Christmas. I remember days of dragging everything out of the attic and taking days to decorate every inch of the house! We had Christmas trees in every room, light up things from the Avon Christmas collection we had inherited from Chris’ Mom on every shelf, and a huge wooden manger that had to sit on the front porch that my Dad made for me one year. These tokens of my Christmas paraphernalia had special memories. They are all gone now … the tokens not the memories. We have only a small box of ornaments that I drag out of the Keller to hang on the pitiful artificial tree that mostly resembles the Charlie Brown Christmas tree. However, yesterday, as I carefully placed each ornament we’ve collected over the last 20 years of marriage (ok, almost 20 years … Dec. 28 will be our 20th Wedding Anniversary!) on the tree, I was struck by the simplicity of life. If you marked your life by the Christmas ornaments that were collected every year what an interesting tree that would make! I went from the “first Christmas together” ornament that someone inscribed our names on … to baby’s first Christmas ornament from Addison … to Parker’s wreath that features her entire face (kinda creepy) … to Libby’s reindeer she made in Kindergarten. Where has all the time gone?





After decorating the tree, I threw greenery all over the rest of the flat to give it a fun and festive feel. When I was done with the entire process, I had relived many events over 20 years of being a wife and mom … saw visions of my childhood Christmas’ past … and wondered what the next 20 years would bring and who it would add to our Elledge clan of 5. In the end it’s pretty simple: love God + love each other well = SIMPLICITY.