I am trying to walk a line this season --
I am trying to be present (which feels hilarious to write, here on my MOM BLOG, while my family is running around asking for dinner and I am ignoring them). I am trying to be present and engaged and not always asking the girls to please for the love of God take those damn "Merry-okie" microphone toys OUTSIDE.
I want ridiculous mom blog things - all our gifts to each other to be handmade, with love. I want to help each child make a gift for the others- the gift that they dream up for their sibling. I want to make pajamas! For Christmas Eve! For everyone! I want to KNIT ALL THE THINGS.
I want to give two dozen cookies and a quart of bourbon to everyone who has dealt with my kids in any capacity all year. I want the dogs to have little sweaters on. And to stop digging through the recycling bin in the garage.
I want to have the perfect little containers for homemade vanilla extract, and to have... you know... made it. And also to make all the cookies that have over the years become Christmas Necessities, including the refrigerator cookies you roll in a tube that only my mom likes.
BUT. I also want to be sane in January, and to have spoken to my children in something other than a yell during the most wonderful time of the year.
So... There's a line. The line means watching the Grinch and eating popcorn for dinner. It means picking my battles and trying hard to believe that when Jane says she doesn't need a coat because she's not cold, she might actually not be cold. It means going to HEB for a tree, not driving out to Elgin and slogging through a field full of anthills, so I can have a file in iphoto that matches last years'... Instead of some of those handcrafted gifts over on pinterest... There might be an EZbake oven and some My Little Ponies under the tree. And it's not going to bother me. Because I'm holding the line. I'm not going to go nuts making my kids hold still so I can get good shots for grandma's silhouette collection (07). I'm not going to throw a roll of butcher paper across a room when I drop stitches on a hat the night before Christmas (09). It means I am never setting foot in a post office in December with my kids again, even if it means no one who doesn't live in Austin gets their gifts on time (11).
Hold The Line.
5 comments:
Oh Lord, where is the line at our house this year? Sources of on again/off again stress for a 2 1/2 year old: Christmas ornaments, Christmas lights, Advent calendar, Advent wreath, hot chocolate, Christmas movies...
I think our line is just keeping the tree standing.
I'm blaming my lack of homemade goods on Jeffery Eugenide's new book. I neglected everything while I was reading it (including motherly duties). I finished it, so I have a week to get my shit together.
I did manage to have christmas cards made, and I do need your address, por favor!
more power to ya!
the christmas cards were about the extent of my handmade christmas presents aside from the miscellaneous jewelry presents.
Hi! I work with your Auntie Marie and I love your blog! She sent me here b/c I was talking to her about some famous mama blogger who tends to drive me a little nuts. Your blog is refreshing.
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