Gifts

(I wish I was creative enough to style this, but it was all Millie's doing!)

Everything I see on the store shelves. Everything toy I find on garage sale websites. Every tiny stocking stuffer and every Christmas tree...they all seem meant to belong to Millie. And after realizing we'd wrapped up six presents for a little girl only two and a half years old, I realized that while everything good is meant for her, it did not all need to come at once.

It's partly her fault, really. She's completely smitten with Christmas. For someone so small who has no recollection of the holidays last year, she still shouts "Christmas!" at each sighting of twinkling lights, tall pines, tinsel, and shining things. She begs for us to sing her Jingle Bells, then follows it up with her own, laughing version in which she often substitutes words and giggles wildly. She can't quite overcome the temptation to reach out and touch the ornaments hanging low on  the tree. And often-quite often in the middle of my homework- she wants me to put on Christmas music from Bing Crosby or Frank Sinatra. She burrows into the loveseat with her trusty blanket and monkey, and listens in an almost reverent silence.

She gasped at the lit up houses we drove by one night. 

"Ohhh, a big tree!" 

"Snowmans!" 

"That's a good one!" 

"Purple lights!"

There will be nothing under the tree this year- or for many years to come- that says "From Millie, To Mama" on the tag. Just presents with her name under the bows. It's just as well.

I don't know how she could ever top everything she's given me in her two small years.