In our family, I tend to be "the person who holds stuff." The half-eaten sandwich. The keys. The sketched-during-the-school-day treasure that one of our kids doesn't want to get crumpled in the bottom of their backpack. Rubik's cubes. Water bottles. Also, any- and every-thing that's deemed too gross to hold. Thank you family.

I clear my bags out fairly regularly, so I guess it's better than ending up with a gift like this at the end of a busy week (super cute book BTW). Booger-filled tissues notwithstanding, it's usually fun. I get to marvel at the latest thing that caught someone's eye. Or get a sneak peek into what they value. I love that.

Seeing the world through others' eyes is a gift, and one of my favorite things about art and story. While nothing is new under the sun, each of our perspectives on everyday stuff will always be unique — and I'll never get enough of that.

This season is always crazy, but I hope you can enjoy a few minutes here and there to digest a story, play a game you haven't tried before, eat new food, or hear all about a loved one's latest interest. Just put your hands behind your back real quick if they just blew their nose!

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!
Bethany (+ Lulu)

P.S. If you’re looking for some great kids reads, I shared a few in the rest of my December studio newsletter that went out today today. I even included a link for chips from my home state of Michigan that we found at our little, local Florida market! They literally had dried cherry flakes on them. So good.

If you happened to stop by my site and would like a copy of the December newsletter, just shoot me a message. You can also sign up for future issues here.