.png)
The holiday season is no joke, my friend. There are parties to attend, gifts to wrap (and buy), kids to snuggle, movies to watch, traditions to break, records to listen to, cookies to bake, puzzles to do, books to read and all the more. And I feel like it is only getting more insane by the minute! This year we had an extra week in between Thanksgiving and Christmas which made me jump for joy - thinking this would be the year that I would finally fit it all in. But alas, here it is just a few more sleeps until Christmas and I haven’t read ONE of my Christmas books, I haven’t kept up (at all) with the advent stories for the kids, I haven’t finished baking or started my puzzle. Jeff and I haven’t even watched a single Christmas movie this season. And y’all, normally I would walk around bummed out and guilty we haven’t upheld all of the things we typically do. I’d start to say “I wish we had a cookie exchange ” or “I’m sad we didn’t make it to Ice”.
But on Monday, I caught my reaction to the impending Christmas countdown. I started to run around like my hair was on fire, frantically trying to fit in everything Christmasy I could think of between now and the big day. I started googling, planning and scheduling. I made a list of all of the stuff I needed to buy at the store. I pinterested the crud out of my morning Monday. And then I stopped. I took a deep breath and asked myself “who cares”? And the honest truth is that no one cares. I’m sure there are moms out there judging us for not being at every playdate or dressing up for every theme day at school. But when I get down to it, why am I scheduling, plotting and planning? The guy check answer was kind of harsh. I wanted to do all the things so that I look good. Ouch. That sort of wrecked me on Monday afternoon (not to mention made me mad for wasting a ton of time). Our kids don’t care about being at everything. Our kids haven’t complained one time that our elf isn’t ‘more fun’. They haven’t cried about having frozen dinners or lunchables for lunch (in fact, they probably welcome it). In reality there are just a few things they really want to do each season and a only a few traditions I crave to keep. I will choose to make time, room and space for those things. And if we so happen to have space for something new or extra, then so be it. What they really want, and what I really want, is time together snuggled up on a cozy couch or even in a crowded restaurant as a family of five. I want down time together, fun time together and rest time together.
So here’s to abolishing expectations this weekend, friend. Here’s to being present and deciding that is more important than “all the things”. Christmas is around the corner and iweve still got time to make it the sweetest one yet.