The A-Ha of Discovery

Living with a 10 year old, particularly at my age, is full of hidden surprises and unexpected delights. Casey finds such excitement in finding new things to gush over and share; his pleasure is infectious and brings laughter to the heart.

Several years ago, in the Ecuadoran Andes, we stayed at a colorful old small hotel in Quito. Casey was enthralled with the new fangled black telephone--one where he could put his finger into little holes and turn the dial. It was awhile before we discovered that he was dismaying the antiquated switchboard with calls. Of course, he was quite convinced that we needed to modernize and get such a technologically advanced instrument for our home.

Since then there have been several other "aha" moments for him. Today was a new one and it came on a day when a laugh was important and the freshness of a young boy was a gift.

Today the boxes--and there are many, too many--came down from the rafters--40+ years of accumulated Christmas decorations. It used to be that our house would have done well in a Christmas decorating contest. Now we pick and choose a small assortment of the memories for display. The truth being that the thought of putting it all back into boxes come January is great encouragement to be selective.

For years we have collected ornaments: sleds, toys, santas, wagons, drums, angels and scores of other ornaments. Over time these have been augmented by those from our travels here in the US and in foreign lands. Many have names of our children and, of course, Casey. We treasure the memories in all of these and like the "old fashion" look of our red and green trees.

When we were first married, we had the normal glass balls and lots of tinsels and those old clunky tree lights. Sometimes they were all gold and other times we liked the rainbow effect. But then, we moved on.

Today, as we hung the ornaments--searching for branches strong enough for the heavy horns, Casey wondered if we had ever seen "those tree balls." He thinks they are beautiful and wants them for next year. As with the telephone in Ecuador, he was surprised to learn that they weren't new ideas but that in the "olden" days we had actually had them. So, now, the new "old fashion" is us--another A-Ha moment.