Dear parents, it’s our longest and possibly most important day of the year, Christmas Eve! I am praying for strength, energy, and piles of grace for all of us today (to bestow upon ourselves and our adorable and crazy children-big or small). We are the master puppeteers pulling off the entire Christmas performance-the fridge and wardrobe inventory managers, the menu planners, the gift curators and purchasers, the joy sprinklers, the creators of our own-one day sacred-family traditions at the holidays. In addition to our usual 24/7 role of physical and emotional caretaker, doctor, sock pair keeper and having to make sure we don’t run out of gas-we have a LOT to accomplish before midnight. No matter what your “survival” bio may look like (mine includes life saving husband, nanny, and mom living down the street) we are easily left depleted. And no words for the single, struggling mamas trying to pull this off. Let’s all ask Jesus for an extra helping of patience today, of grace for whatever our situation is-of love to pour out on our babies-of smiles on our weary faces no matter the hardship-of gentleness and joy as we are creating memories that will last our loved ones a lifetime. Let those Polaroids in the reel of their minds be forever lovely. It’s ok if you lose it, I threw a bag of cashews at my kids yesterday in the backseat after a day of adventures. I rarely cuss but I said get in the damn car in a parking lot full of others (I’m embarrassed mom you would have never done that), which shocked them to their core-then I had to say no matter how y’all are acting I’m not supposed to treat you like that. Jesus and Santa are watching. Please forgive me. Then Stella said she hopes I make it back to nice list by tomorrow. Me too. I want presents. They get it-they see the real me. The one that loves them madly but also loses it from time to time, the one that tries so hard to regulate their emotions then loses control of my own. We are human, and it’s Christmas, and we want it to be wonderful.
Forgive yourself, forgive your kids, give them free Christmas presents in the form of piles of grace and kindness and laughter. We all need so much of it, Merry Christmas!