Kittens and Tattoos

From Pinterist

I have been in a funk all week obsessing about kittens and tattoos.  It is taking a lot out of me to navigate life with Sophie rights now.  It doesn't help that Joel has been sick all fall and really sick this last week.  I also have a harder time this week of Christmas.  There are so many triggers and memories that come up.  But I have been trying to keep close with the Kookums and draw from their strength.  I also worked on learning "I am grateful" (ᓂᑕᑕᒥᓇᐣ nitataminan) in Cree to practice the words even if I don't feel them right now. 

We will be celebrating Solstice and Yule over the next few days and I enjoy these times as they are traditions that were new to me and have happy (aside from the Sophie screaming) memories.  I liked this article from Bustle about other winter traditions - I need to add a giant cat to our traditions.  We usually mash a couple of them together, like feeding the Chinese solstice rice balls to the Yule Lads.  We also go outside and try to coax the Japanese Sun Goddess to come out of her cave with a mirror and the girls particularly like Saturnalia where we give them some time to be in charge to reflect the role reversal of this holiday.  I started my research on Wikipedia and grew things from there over the past few year.  For Christmas Eve I tell the story I wrote that tries to weave all of these different things, cultures and times together to bring out the meta themes of community and light.  I also try to take one night to talk about people who may not be celebrating right now, or who might not have good memories about this time.  It seems like a lot when I set it out here, but I hope it comes together and gives the girls good memories.