Settling in

There's a word my Dutch descended family uses frequently: gezelligheid. It's a word that doesn't really have an English translation.  It's a word that encompasses everything cozy and peaceful.  It's a word that envokes hospitality and making your company feel at ease.

As a child my mom would set out our afternoon tea on the weekends with cake or cookies and call to my dad and the kids, "Come be gezellig with me!"  In the footsteps of his mother before him, my dad would turn on classical music and we would sit around the coffee table, cozy on our couches, dipping our cookies into our tea cups and sharing stories together.

Gezellig is the warmth of a fire in winter, sharing a blanket with a friend on the couch, and wrapping your fingers around a hot coffee.  Being gezellig was the ever sought after goal of my parents and all their friends during my childhood.

This week, being gezellig is our goal too.  We are settling in to new routines and making peace with our new roles as mama and papa and son. We are getting cozy as a family.

We are enjoying the wonderment of our son as he sits so quietly in his stroller and takes in our neighborhood. We are delighting in his blissful laughter as he experiences the newness of his life:

swinging high at the park,

exploring the new playground equipment,

 

and watching, mesmerized, as the park's ducks waddle by.

Today we introduced him to the height of gezelligheid: the Christmas season. After years of dreaming about experiencing the holidays with our own child, we are drinking deeply from the well of at long lasts. At long last, we decorated together, set up the tree, and took Arie to his first ever Christmas parade. He is wide-eyed and curious through it all, taking in every new experience with awe.

We decorated the tree dark and when it was fully dressed I stood on a chair to capture the moment when John turned on the lights.  He watched with silent rapture and gingerly reached out to touch the ornaments.  Everything is new and everything is beautiful.

His papa held him up to place the angel on the top of the tree.  Tonight John said to me, "I had these ideas of what it would be like to be a father but I didn't think it would really be like I imagined.  So far, it is.  It's awesome."

Yes, we are waking up with Arie in the middle of the night and struggling to figure out what he wants to eat.  We are drinking more coffee than usual and calling, "Not it!" for diaper changes.  But we are so happy with our little man. We are reveling in the newness of it all.  After the years I spent longing for a child, I am living in deep gratitude for the precious gift of our long awaited child.  The days are long but the years fast, as the saying goes. Let me love the long days and look back at the fast years with satisfaction for a life well lived, in gratitude and joy.

Waiting for the parade of lights to begin.

Jesus is the light. Amen.

Blessed gezelligheid for the holidays.

xo