upon taking the afternoon to scout some new photo locations downtown, we delightfully landed upon an old-fashioned candy store.

glass jars lined up like an apothecary…full of penny candies and sweet things with swirls.
and a sea of colorful salt water taffies…homemade in a hundred different flavors. flavors like peppermint, rum butter, tutti fruit and key lime.

i splurged on one espresso truffle and fell victim to her cute little puppy dog noises and pointing so i gave her a candy necklace and a necco. not that she needed them seeing as she earlier tried to…eat the candy garland!

the candy necklace later broke and landed a hundred colorful spheres onto the floor of my car. not to mention, her carseat straps are now coated with something blue and sticky. perhaps some tutti fruity taffy.

i’m not a fan of babies + sugar, but moments like these are too priceless. i know i write about decorating cookies and dates at the ice cream parlor and satiating her whines with candy necklaces and tutti fruity. now that i mention it, it does sound like a lot. but, it really is few and far between. and besides, i’ll take a little sugar over red dye any day.

oh, willy wonka would be so proud.

poor lily isn’t getting her picture taken much on these outings because she’s strapped to my chest.

we finished the afternoon out watching boats from the dock and slipping in and out of tourist traps that sell rope necklaces and polished shells…from indonesia. figures.

despite our lack of snow in december, i really, really do love where i live.

~enjoying the sweet things. ~k

friday night, our friends opened their deli for the first evening of mingling and merriment.

it was that good-kind-of-loud where you could close your eyes and still “see” the energy from the sounds of friends and catching up and live band music and kids dancing outside under the florida moon and laughter and pizza and beer and babies sleeping through it all (okay, my baby sleeping through it all)…and…all the good stuff that makes a night at a family pizzeria just divine.

we mingled and ate good pizza dipped in the best marinara sauce this side of the mason dixon line…and donna, your place is now christened because i took a self portrait in the bathroom mirror. carry on.

more fun crazy nights at lucarellis to come. they’re now open at night!

and shifting gears…lainey’s room is now back to my heavenly little everything-is-perfect room i dreamed it to be being that the big target rug we put in there while she was crawling has been pulled out and replaced with the original rug i madly searched the internet for while i was pregnant. i love her room. every single nook and cranny is everything i dreamed of. it’s heaven, and now that her little christmas tree is up, i go in there at night with just the twinkly lights on and rock in the big white chair…alone. and i try to remember rocking in that room every night with my big pregnant belly trying to imagine what it would be like…to have a baby girl and love her like everybody said i would. expectations madly exceeded.

oh, and i do believe i mentioned a cute little hustle…

across the driveway she goes, her pixie little legs whisking off to find a ball or to chase the dog or to run and look back to make sure we’re watching to see just how cute she can be. *which we always are.

and finally, despite what “the books” say…
we’re lovin’ our bottle. it’s our friend. all of ours, and we’ll be sad the day our friend leaves our house. we all take turns–austyn & brandyn included– pouring the cold whole milk into it while she waits patiently at our feet, and smiles when it’s handed to her. they have a bond, she and that bottle.

and, this may be random but very important indeed.
if i were five, i would be asking santa for this and this and this.
because, secretly, i am five. and, i’m sorry, but living in a five-year old toy land is pretty darn cool.

oh, wizard of oz is on tbs, and i do think it’s time for some late night couch. seeing as i have seven photo shoots this week, i’m going to make it a point to enjoy all the in-between this week. even more so.

…enjoying the small things. ~k

i had a bunch of cute things planned for this post…pictures of last night’s party at lucarellis, lainey’s bottle addiction, her busy-bodied little hustle across the driveway.

…but that was before tonight. and tonight was magic. and magic trumps parties and bottles and even cute little hustles.

maybe i’m more sentimental than most. maybe everybody puts up their tree and cries afterward. maybe every home felt love so real you could touch it tonight.

but, that doesn’t lessen what i’m feeling one bit.

it’s almost midnight, the house is dark all but the dying embers in our fireplace and the glow from the tree…in its first night in our home this season. and after it’s all over…after watching lainey’s wonder, after seeing my dad stretch far up on the ladder to reach the top of the tree, after hearing brandyn laugh and grandma colleen gently explain to lainey how pretty the ornaments were… after all that…

i sit next to brett and just cry.
“brett, these are the nights.” (sob, sob, sob) “these are the nights, twenty years from now, we’re never going to forget.”
he smiles. “you’re right, baby. you’re right.”

when our kids are grown. when our parents are old. when things are different. wonderful in their own way, yes…but different. these are the nights we are never going to forget in all of their perfection.

i don’t ever want to forget nights like tonight.

it was family. and just like every year, we put up the tree with a fire and a christmas movie. tonight, it was elf. and there was laughing. warm bodies curled up on the couch. key lime pie. and lots of “ooh pretty”-‘s.

and then the ornaments. nestled between layers of wired ribbon and strings of white lights are not just ornaments…but memories. and taking them out each year is like a spiritual ritual. i can tell you everything about each one.

the little spring arbor house i painted when i lived with my grandparents in college…and how i remember thinking when i made it, “someday, this is going to mean a lot…when grandpa and grandma aren’t here anymore.” it means a lot now.

the soon-to-be-diaper-diva that arrived in a package in the mail early december two years ago from my sister on a day i was banished to the couch with morning sickness.

the little yellow taxi my dad markered “chicago” on and gave to brett on his first christmas with our family.

the white wooden ice skates my dad got me from chapman house after he saw me admiring them.

the little snowman i bought for fifteen cents at michaels and painted when i was in college and didn’t have any money.

the cherry pie my sister gave me after i baked my first one…and carried on my mom’s pie tradition. it says “for carrying on mom’s cherry pie tradition” on the back.

the snowman with the big glass belly and a tiny snowman inside. i was pregnant and searching for anything to represent my excitement…and when i saw it one night in 2006, i smiled and knew it was the one.

the little silver cradle, already tarnished, and etched with baby’s first christmas. how can that just have been last year?

it’s bittersweet, unwrapping them from their crumpled tissue and letting them serve another christmas on the family tree, earning their precious value more each year. it’s sad as they get more worn and time separates us from their very first christmas on our tree…but yet exciting to see what new ones will find a place there this year. …as we look for what represents their personalities, their accomplishments, their spirits. do they make a happiness ornament? just a great big beam of love and happiness? certainly nothing that could possibly hold as much as we feel.

no, they’re not just ornaments. …they’re memories. precious memories.

and, she has her own little tree in her room too…

oh, tonight was magic. just magic.

and, although i write as much as i can possibly transform with letters and words, there’s so much more that can’t be written. so, beautiful memories they will remain. and, like the ornaments, they will fade and wear a little more each year. but, then again, that’s really what makes them so beautiful, isn’t it?

…enjoying the beautiful, magical things. ~k

oh, and parties and bottles and cute little hustles to come later this weekend. ~k

all this crying and loving the moment stuff makes me a little tired…

goodnite.