The very first piece of (new) “furniture” that we received as a couple was a mattress, a moving gift bestowed upon us by my mother. We were thrilled to upgrade to a queen size from a full, despite wedging it into our bedroom with a shoehorn in the Manhattan apartment. All of the other aspects of our living quarters were happy hand-me-downs, aside from the wedding gifts of pots, pans and a set of dishes. When we moved from the city and Justin got a job working at a practice here in Santa Cruz, we were more than a little excited to splurge on new bedding for ourselves and the kids. There’s something fundamental and yet sacred about where we lay our heads at night, a culmination of our daily lives and ultimately a peaceful respite from the hectic routine and stress that comes with just being alive and functioning.
We spend a lot of time in our master bedroom, the quietest moments just before we tuck everyone in bed at night, after the rigor of the day and the climax of tensions between all of the different personalities in the house. We have built in a diligent night time routine that the kids both expect and understand; Jack and Zoe know what time we wrap up for bed and Beau follows suit, sometimes putting up a fight but most often they understand and are resigned to the pied piper that is the moon coming up and ultimately the sun setting. Their beds nestled in their bedrooms are their safe havens, and each child knows they are welcome in our room and in our bed whenever they want or need. I don’t think I’ll ever forget the feeling of being under the covers in my mother’s bedroom; it was the ultimate safe, comfortable place with her billowing down comforters and soft-as-petal sheets. As a parent, it was an unspoken effort on my part to build a similar space in our home for my kids, and as such one thing I don’t often think twice about is investing in bedding but it’s an even better feeling to find high quality at a good price. With J.C. Penney’s Royal Velvet collection, I’ve been so happy with the hotel-like feel of the sheets wrinkle-free Damask Stripe sheets and crisp white comforts, but the fact that they also wash so nicely makes a huge difference, too. We have all kids of people and puppies on and in our bed at all times, it’s pretty imperative that we have multiple sets for switching out and washing.
The mornings and nights are always pretty cool in Santa Cruz, one thing I absolutely love about living in Northern California. When it’s time to really tuck in at night, the kids all have cozy soft down comforters on their beds that they pretty much always either need or simply want to bury themselves in. We were able to find a great Extra-Warmth Down Comforter from the Royal Velvet line, along with Ultimate Support and decorative Luxury Down Feather pillows for our master bed, again-the cozier the better. These kinds of things I know will be in our lives for a long time, with some of our most quiet and loving moments spent with each other wrapped up in the early dawn or late dusk. We respect the night, the quiet, the restorative sleep that we all so desperately need at the end of each day, and it’s something that we’ve been incredibly diligent about maintaining and impressing upon our children how critical a good night sleep (or in a few of their cases, a solid nap) is to our mental and physical health. Building those spaces in our home is like creating a church out of our bedrooms where we regard the spirit of sleep with the ultimate care and love. It is these little Royal Moments that keep us afresh and connected to each other. If I could just make sure to get to sleep more myself, I’d be winning half of the battle.
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