I love the Christmas season! I am “the person” who has the tree up before Thanksgiving, the lights up outside, too! Now, I am not a lunatic, I don’t have all this done before Halloween, but usually the week before Thanksgiving…I love the lights, I love the vibe in the air, I love the holiday shows and commercials, I am a total sucker. I also hate the cold and “seasonal change of weather,” so the festivity of the holidays gets me through what otherwise might be a horrible melt down due to inability to wear shorts and tank tops over my bathing suit.
I enjoy the holiday season for many reasons, but a huge one being this is the time of year people who normally don’t think of others do try to think of others. Sometimes this thought comes in the form of a financial donation to a charity, maybe a bit of food donation, maybe the purchase of a toy for a needy child. In my home, those things happen year round. We started a tradition of having to make a gift for each of our family members. We have a big family, and lots of small children with short attention spans, so we draw names and, for example, this year my youngest child has to make a gift for his sister and his grandmother. He is 18 mos, so he will be making handprints on a canvas. My oldest daughter has to make gifts for her dad and grandfather. She spent today working on a gift for each of them, had a great time doing it, and really thought about what she was doing and why. So, today, I spent some time with my two oldest making gifts. It was so fun! WE talked about the people we were creating things for, we joked about stuff, we laughed, one of them fell off a stool, the other one dropped the roll of paper towels and laughed so hard food came out of her nose (kids LOVE that)…And, the whole time we were doing this, snow was falling outside. It was a beautiful, memorable moment I will always have. (And I usually HATE snow, because it comes with COLD.) Today was a beautiful, wonderful, heart warming day – even with wind chills of 0 degrees and not a drop of sun.
Tonight, I had one of my long term child hood dreams come true, too. Like many girls, I used to fantasize in my head about what it was going to be like when I was married and had kids. I always thought it was going to be this romantic, kids in bed, time for adults to talk, cuddle, hold each other, tell each other how special they are time…Uh huh. Not so much around here. Lots of “discussions,” huffy and demoralizing comments, laundry, dishes, crankiness, what is the ACTUAL norm, not a teenager’s fantasy for sure. We have four kids, two “other” parents, a dog, bills, neighbors, friends, family…YOu know what I mean. But tonight, I got to sit under the Christmas tree with “Shrek” on in the background and just look at the few (very few, we have a 2 1/2 yr old and an 18 month old) ornaments on the tree and smile, relax, and think…WAS SO AWESOME!!!!! Other people might dream of going to the Super Bowl, or drive a Bentley, or have millions of dollars, and those things are great. But not one of those things can warm a heart like mine was warmed today.
A great day.
(Don’t want to jinx it…so, let me add, I am grateful for the day I had today…even if it all came about because my husband had a, ummm, “Unchatergorized” dream….)