After weeks of working to meet holiday deadlines, I'm ready for a little break. The girls take me out on a hunt for fairy house treasures. We collect bits of this and that on our walk: acorns, pebbles, twigs, and leaves. We splash in mud puddles and run through a cornfield, surrounded by the familiar smell of the last fallen leaves. Although its only 45 degrees, 3yo Lily refuses a coat. And to my chagrin, she never does complain of the cold. 
Emma, recently 5 and infinitely more practical, wears a coat and carries a large pink "purse" that she's filled with her essentials: pencils and a sketchbook. Once home, I bake banana bread while they transform their found treasures into a cozy new windowsill fairy cottage. And as Lily licks the bowl I finally realize what I've been missing.
