Ready, Set, STOP!

I am tired today. It's been a tiring week! Between running the kids here and there, I'm trying in vain to get the lights on my Christmas tree, finish the laundry, and work on the many things on my to-do list. I haven't even begun Christmas shopping, and forget about baking for now. Let me just say, this is not my childhood Christmas.

Of course, my mom wasn't running us everywhere. She worked full time and we lived in town. If we had somewhere to go, we got ourselves there with our Fred Flinstone car---our feet. She didn't know half the time where we were going or if we were wearing coats and boots. She was blissfully unaware. She really had no choice! Somehow,maybe magically, she managed to turn our home into a Christmas wonderland, singlehandedly most times, as dads back then weren't into the whole "helping' thing, as you may know. Dads weren't stopping at stores on the way home from work to pick things up for a tired mom. Nope. Dads were sitting on their tired butts watching the news and waiting for tired mom to finish dinner.

Somehow she managed to make not just one or two kinds of homemade candies, but several. Not just one or two cookies, but at least 6 or 7 kinds. Our home at Christmas time was like a party for any friend who would come over. We had candy dishes everywhere, cookie plates here and there, every corner was decorated, and we always had the Christmas music on. A snow day was like a vacation back then, not a stressful thing as it is now most times. I can't remember getting anything on my Christmas list, however, I can't remember ever being disappointed on Christmas. We didn't get a lot, having 5 kids in the house, but it seemed like a pile of gifts when we came down the stairs on Christmas morning. I didn't think about the fact that the desk and chair set I got was actually refurbished. I was in love with that desk! I still have it today, labeled, "save for grandkids". I think ahead.

Anyway, I sure had a different perspective on Christmas from a child's eye. I'm still not sure how my working mom pulled off Christmas like that each year. I know she wasn't always in a great mood! We tend to get that way when we try to do too much. I catch myself in a "mood" when I also feel I'm not doing enough to make Christmas memorable for my girls. Ugh.

One of the reasons I chose to be a stay at home mom was that I wanted to give my kids the gift of time. My mom was always preoccupied with work. Though she loved Christmas and the other holidays, she was not a sitting, reading, knitting, baking kind of mom. She cooked, for sure, but she really didn't have much time for herself, and so everything she did was for us. She was just too busy doing it to spend time with us just having fun. I'd like to say I'm different, but sometimes I get caught up with all I have to do, and I forget about having fun. Sometimes the holidays stress me out and I forget that it's up to me to make those holidays memorable for them, as they were for me as a child.

I may be home, yes, but I am doing way more running and activities than my mom ever had to do. While I didn't like the answer of "no" back then, I know why she said it so many times. At least it kept us home as a family, not running in 7 different directions, as sometimes we do as a family of just 4.

And so, I will have to put some "family events" on the calendar before everyone else tries to take my days away, and here is a list of what we'll do.

1. Sit on the couch and stare at the tree while drinking cocoa and eating cookies. Time needed: approximately 25 minutes.
2. Take the "one horse open sleigh" for a drive around our neighborhood looking at lights. The "sleigh" is our mini van, with windows open (sometimes even both doors!) Christmas music blaring, while driving around looking at lights. Snow is optional, but makes it so much better. Cookies optional, but make it even better.
3. A walk in the woods on a snowy evening. Do I need to say more?
4. Watch a favorite Christmas special as a family.
5. Make a snow hill from the top of the deck, and try to injure ourselves with the snow board later on as the hill grows.
6. have a snowball fight after the first snow. Then come in and make chili!
7. Sit around in our jammies ALL day and do whatever we want to do!
8. Have a family game night where we all beat daddy. He always wins!

There are so many more things I want to do with my family, and I know sometimes other things will get in the way. But if I can just stop and do just one, we will all be better for it.

I hope you make time to do the simple things with the ones you love. They won't forget it! And neither will you....