Carrot Seeds and Christmas...

Something unexpected has happened this Christmas season. It is the strangest thing. Being broke has actually created something magical in our family's life this year. I remember what it was like having money just a few years ago, and how easy it was to run to Wal-Mart or Target and purchase a ton of gifts, wrap them up, stick a bow on them, and send them off to the people that you loved. Again, don't get me wrong. Ain't nothing wrong with that. Heck, that's almost preferred. But THAT scenario rarely produces magic.

Yeah, I said it. Magic. Real old fashioned magic.

I can already tell that you guys are dying to know more about Carrot Seeds and Christmas, but I'm not just gonna give it to you. I'm gonna make you work for it. After all. What is magic if you are shown how the trick works before actually seeing it performed.

When I was little, there was one place on earth that I considered magic. That was my Grandmother's house. Nestled up in the Smokey Mountains of North Carolina, we would drive many times a year to visit her. Christmas time was the most magical though. I couldn't tell you why either. It was the cold maybe? The chance of magical snow? The fact that Santa might not know that we are staying at her house that year? Who knows. But you could taste it in the air. It was definitely the flavour of magic.

Several things to know about my Grandmother are that she was an R.N. (which meant she was very smart) and a School Teacher (which meant that she knew how to play with kids and their imaginations). These things made her remarkable as a Grandmother. She could play the piano like no body's business, and would sing as loud as her old crackly Grandmother voice would get without getting off note. What would we do as kids? Why, that was simple. We would dance or run around in a circle while she played. Our world (her living room) would spin with all of the Christmas decorations while we dances and sang and spun around laughing. There was one decoration in particular that I had made when I was 'really' little. It was supposed to be a candle. I had taken an old wrapping paper tube and colored it with the best of my skills with a red crayon and glued some tinsel, plastic pine needles, and some other odds and ends on the top. Sortv'e like a magic Christmas flame. She kept that piece of decor all the way up until she passed away and 'always' put it out next to the fireplace for Christmas.

Being a teacher, she taught us some of the wildest and coolest things to make with stuff we had lying around the house. She taught us how to make inflatable paper cubes without anything but a sheet of typing paper (my Grandaddy worked at the local paper mill and being an artist, I had the privilege of having a 'paper of the month' club lifelong membership). She would thumb through her magical books (these were called Child Craft Books... look them up) ... and find magical potions for us to concoct with her. Another one was the magic ocean in a bottle! She would make these things that almost made her wizard like and would blow our minds. We learned so many fun and magical things while staying with her and I remember thinking once, 'if I ever have kids, I hope to pass on these magical spells of wonderment to my very own.'

When she passed away about 6 or 7 years ago (sorry, the years have all run together for me) a lot in my life has changed. I have been adopted by 4 incredible kids, and have one of my very own, and a NEW one in the oven! I have focused on giving these amazing kids my heart, and love, and knowledge, and wisdom, and life. I know that they are mostly teens now and I missed a lot of the growing up, so the magic that my Grandmother taught me would have to wait for Ash and his new sibling to be.

But...

Something happened this year. We had no money. None for gifts, or very little. We decided to make our own decorations the way my Mom had shown me when I was a kid and we spent Yadiloh (our tradition for decorating the tree and house on the 2nd Wed of Dec) stringing cranberries and popcorn... and laughing... and decorating gingerbread men for the tree (seeing who could be the most creative)... and laughing... and there was Ash... little Ash... Christmas music on in the background and his little body moving to the beat of 'Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree', while he admired the twinkly lights on our little 30 dollar tree from the grocery store.

But that was just the beginning of the magic.

Our 15 year old came to me wanting me to help her make her friend a gift. We sat down and were brainstorming with the few materials we had. She wanted to make a special angel out of typing paper... and yes... that is when it hit me. The Inflatable Paper Cube!

"My Grandmother used to make these when I was little, and I would draw pictures on the inside, so when you looked through the hole, it was like peeking into a secret magical world."

We made one with an angel in it. I could taste the magic. She was not too old to taste it either. It was just an amazing magical ball of creativity that we made together and I got to talk about my Grandmother again.

Then, our 18 year old had this idea that she wanted to make something special for her boyfriend. Something that was like a magic potion that was part of an inside joke they shared. Then it hit me, My Grandmother's Ocean in a bottle, but this time instead of blue ocean... we would make it pink like a magic potion! Again, the magic started and the 18 year old smiled big! I could taste the magic again!

It made me smile and I knew that my Grandmother was here this Christmas.

Oh, what do Carrot Seeds have to do with Christmas. For me, every time we would go to my Grandmother's we would all run upstairs into the playroom and put this record on. We LOVED it. It was about magic. It was about how if we believe in magic and practice our magic and share our magic that other people will see it too.

http://www.ghostologymedia.com/The_Carrot_Seed/The_Carrot_Seed.mp3

RAWK!