gwf-gwf

Chris from www.stumblingoverchaos.com gave me this term-- it stands for generic winter festival gifts with food (or something close) and she pronounces it gwif-gwif. I like the term (even though she snagged it from someone else, she's the one who gave it to me, so, well, that's what I'm remembering.

Anyway--Happy gwif-gwif.

This week I have been the recipient of many, many gifts--people I adore, whose friendship has come to mean the world to me, have sent me gifts--everything from rumballs, to yarn, to nuts, to gift cards, to knitting doo-dads, to music--it has arrived on my doorstep and I have been amazed. I am not a gracious 'receiver' when I have not given in return. I'm not. I'm too full of that deeply ingrained guilt of gift-giving obligation, but the last few months have been... difficult. Difficult and painful, and I have discovered who my friends are and where my priorities belong, and so I am going to bow to karma. I am going to simply say thank you, and bow deeply, and accept that people love me, and they know my heart and they know I love them back. And this gwf-gwf, I am going to be truly, amazingly, gloriously thankful. My children ARE nestled all snug in their beds. My husband DOES love me through thick and through thin. And my friends ARE here in my heart, and I mean as much to them as they do to me.

OUr toilet sprung a leak tonight, and the mortgage isn't getting any smaller, and we're going to be living on leftovers and top ramen for the next week, but all that is incidental in the grand scheme of things. It's something I've always known, something I've always written about, and tonight, something I'm feeling to the depths of my toenails. (Of course, this might change if the toilet falls through the rotted floor, but even then, you can bet the subsequent blog wouldn't be boring, right?)

From the depths of my heart, a hopeful Christmas and a brave New Year...