Holiday Confessions

We all know her.  That mom who does it all, with style and patience, and perfectly groomed children.  She is always helpful, always kind, and if you happen to drop by unannounced, has a freshly baked plate of cookies to share.  On the side, she has a wonderful business doing something creative and inspiring, that happens to pay the extra bills for her talented children’s music, dance, and art lessons.  She is amazing, awe-inspiring, and somehow annoying, all at the same time.  You want to be her.  You also kind of hate her.

Good news!  I am not that mom.

And to prove it, and hopefully make you feel a little bit better about yourself, I am going to tell you some of my deepest, darkest, Holiday Confessions.

This is the season we are all a little busier than normal, so those people who are great at handling “busy” really shine.  We read their blog’s helpful hints about how to manage all the guests, while folding napkins into Christmas tree shapes.  We despair because, not only do we not own cloth napkins, we forgot to buy paper napkins and therefore will be serving Christmas dinner with paper towels.  So if you find yourself in the paper towel category, thinking everyone else has it more together than you, read on!

1. Today I encouraged my children to wear their new Santa hats to school because I didn’t have time to fix their hair.
2. My kids’ teacher-gifts of lovely home-baked cookies were from a giant tub of Nestle Toll House cookie dough.
3. The adorable glitter snowflakes the kids and I made to go with the cookies turned out to be an epic “Pinterest Fail” but I sent them anyway, hoping the teachers would assume I didn’t help make them.
4. Last night, my husband ordered his own gifts from Amazon, from his wish list that he so considerately made for me a few weeks ago.  The main gift should arrive approximately Dec. 27th.
5. My Christmas tree has ornaments on the bottom 2/3 only, since I never got around to putting on the high ornaments after the kids did their part the day after Thanksgiving.
   

   My favorite gift under our tree, from my 6-year-old, who decorated it herself

6. I do not increase my water, fruit, and veggie intake this time of year to combat the holiday weight gain. I increase my wine and chocolate intake and pretend my scale is broken.
7. My family’s favorite mashed potatoes recipe that they ask me to make every holiday?  Flakes in a box.  Made in the microwave.
8. The lovely snow on my little porcelain nativity scene is just dust.  A lot of it.
9. I spent almost as much to mail my in-laws’ Christmas gifts as I did purchasing them, because I waited so long to send them.
10. And worst of all, I completely forgot to get a gift for the guinea pig.  My daughter will be more offended than if I had forgotten her gifts.

The good news of Christmas is that the baby whose birth we celebrate said later in his life, “I didn’t come to save the healthy, but to save the sick and the lost.”  So I’m embracing my imperfectness, my paper towel napkins, and reveling in the fact that Jesus came to be with me.

May you have joy and peace this season, and all year long, knowing you don’t have to be perfect, just because you look around and everyone else looks perfect.  If in doubt, stop by my house, and I’ll whip you up a plate of freshly baked, store bought, cookies.  On a good day, you might get a paper towel to go with them.