Project Emily Advent: Day 7
What three ordinary things bring you the most joy?
Because I make the rules, I will not be listing three individual things that bring me the most joy and instead I will list three families of things.
Firstly, seasonal treats bring me joy. Valentine’s chocolate in the shape of hearts. Cadbury eggs at Easter time snuck to me in the backseat during a rest stop. My mom’s Easter bunny cake. Watermelon and rosé in the summer. Marshmallow peeps at Halloween. Candy corn. Reese’s pumpkins. Pumpkin spice lattes. Butternut squash soup. Pumpkin bread. Beef stew with fresh bread. Thanksgiving stuffing with oysters and deviled eggs with jalapenos. Christmas cocktails with eggnog or peppermint schnapps. Peppermint mochas. Shiner Cheer. Gingerbread cookies. Anything and everything that comes and goes once a year.
Secondly, nature walks featuring flowers and critters bring me joy. I love flower hunting. Indian paintbrushes, winecups, primrose, black-eyed susans, rain lilies, and gayfeather. I used to be a compulsive picker of wild flowers, but now I simply leave the beauty where I find it for the next person to discover. Texas has something like 5,000 different species of flowering plants. I am always blown away by the variety of wildflowers around my home, especially in the springtime. Then there are the critters. Nothing delights me like happening upon a raccoon or better yet, a baby raccoon, moving stealthily on a riverbank. Turtles are a good find, lizards even better. Bugs are also welcome treasure in my hunt. Rolly pollies, ladybugs. Butterflies, earthworms. Dragon flies, a really cool spider. Have you ever pulled your car over in the night to touch the tarantula in the road? Okay, me neither. It’s only a matter of time before I get into bird watching. It is my destiny.
Lastly, tiny things bring me joy. I love dollhouse furniture and miniature food and drink. Polly Pocket clothes and Lego accessories. I love Barbie shoes and American Girl backpacks. I love perusing the Christmas ornaments at Target, a feast of tiny coffee cups and footballs and bowls of macaroni and cheese. Safety scissors. I love my brother-in-law’s tiny skateboard and my baby girl’s tiny shoes. I love the recent return of the miniatures craze, where people buy surprise packages of miniature name brand foods and laundry detergent and other stuff which is really so weird. I love snow globes. I love the stickers that sometimes come with day planners, holiday stickers with tiny Christmas trees or the ones for habits like water glasses and tiny yoga mats. I love Christmas villages. So, so much.
And so, if you want to get me something for Christmas, a tiny critter made of Advent chocolate will do perfectly.
