The Best Laid Plans...

It's funny how you can get a vision in your head of the way things will be. Every holiday, every birthday, every "family day out", every weekend, I have this vision. "Oh, it will be perfect", I think. Have I not learned my lesson?

Our Christmas this year was anything but perfect, but it ranks up there as one of my favorites.

For instance:

None of our old Christmas lights worked and we had to buy all new ones.

We went to look at Christmas lights and the kids slept the whole time. Kate did wake up once to cry about wanting her bed. ha! Not quite the Norman Rockwell moment I had pictured in my head.

We went to see Santa and they were having issues with the picture processing, so after a while of waiting, we had to use our iphones instead.

I forgot to move the Elf on the Shelf a handful of times. Which never went unnoticed by Kate. "My elf did not move, Mommy.", she would say. You should have seen the joy on her face when he did move, though. Priceless.

On the 22nd at 11:00 p.m., after having driven 6 hours home from seeing Gammy, Gampy, and Stuart in Kansas, then taking the kids to see Santa, I was standing in the baking aisle at Walmart realizing there was no flour left, when I grabbed my phone to consult the list that I had been adding to ALL day of things we needed as they popped into my head. The list. was. gone.
Someone (who will remain nameless, but she's the little cute, sassy blond that resides here) DELETED my list while playing with my phone and I was so brain dead from the whirlwind of the day, that I couldn't remember a thing that was on it.

So, I cried. There, in the baking aisle amidst shelves with only dustings of flour left behind (no BAGS of flour, mind you), I cried. FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS GOOD... WHY ME??? It seems so silly now. But, I promise... it was a big deal then.

Somehow, I pulled it together and drug my lifeless, exhausted self through every aisle until I managed to get it all. All because I wanted to do nothing but stay home on the 23rd.

And, guess what? We were home all day on the 23rd. We stayed in pajamas. I drank about four cups of coffee with peppermint mocha creamer, we baked, we cleaned, I wrapped, and we made Reindeer food.

There was something about this Christmas that was slower paced. It was just what we needed. It was perfect in its own way. It was real and full of meaningful moments with family and friends.

Every late night, every mile driven, every trip to the basement, every cookie baked, every craft project completed, every Christmas book read... it was all worth the energy we put in.

We never go overboard on buying presents for our kids because, to be honest, we just can't. But, we always tip the scales on the memory making.

And we document it here. After all, it's the memories that last, right?

(Mark has lots of irons in the fire right now. I'm still waiting for him to upload some pictures from his camera and his phone. Then, I will FINALLY have fully documented our Christmas! Hopefully it will be before February... kidding!)