m o m e n t s : :

we've been celebrating the 12 days of christmas & today is the 12th day, or epiphany /three kings day! we had the joy of celebrating the first five with our dear friends up in oregon. even though, two different nights we ended up trading in for mr. popper's penguins & another for living room karaoke before bed, the three other nights of celebrating 3 kings were rich.

this year, each night (sans those two in oregon) we have been reading out of 'the story for kids' and using the brief questions at the end of each chapter for the launch of discussion. we wanted to do something that would be engaging for the older two, but also keep our little's attention. the other night, she, the little, blew me away with her questions & insight. her thoughts provoked more discussion, pondering and inquiry from her older siblings, which in turn led to a really beautiful 11th night of christmas (even though we were all too tired and/or ill to stand up and energetically sing like we usually do).

today we celebrate with one last lighting of the candles, a last reading and discussion, song & gifts. three kings day is set aside as the day the wise men finally arrived to jesus after following the star (for many years). three wise men came bearing gifts, so we choose to give the girls three gifts on this day. a want, a need & a keepsake/family heritage something or other.

wants & needs are pretty self explanatory, but when we share this tradition with others, the keepsake can often throw them off. here's a few examples of what we've done. last year elli had turned ten & was really into photography (she still is). we gave her the photography book 'decade' as her keepsake. something to connect her to her first decade of life and a love of photography. it's a book that i know will be something she treasures for a long long time. something she looks back on, reveling at all the history that took place during her first ten years of life. ocean had expressed an interest in wanting photos of eric & i, as well as, her grandparents, so we framed photos & that was her keepsake. the very first year we did this, the girls had been figuring out the balance between sister/friendship and friendships with others. amber is a symbol of protection, so we gave them each an amber necklace. similar but each slightly unique and shared with them the importance of protecting their sisterhood. with communication building friendships with others but not at the disintegration of their sister. they were young and it was exactly what they needed as a reminder of kindness & a hug on the way out the door as they went to play with someone else.

there is excitement in this house for evening to come, but in the mean time we are off to the beach and i have some knitting to do! nothing like last minute (literally) knitted gifts!