Today we decorated the house for Christmas. To be honest, I woke up this morning less than enthused about it. The day started with a crying baby, a messy house, and my ever-present laundry “situation.” When we moved our furniture around so that the tree would fit, I felt annoyed. When we started moving boxes out of storage, I felt overwhelmed. And when it was time to feed the kids lunch before we had really even started, I felt stressed.
But, then we put on the Christmas music. And Chad started putting those beautiful little white lights on the tree. And we started going through boxes, the kids exclaiming excitedly every time they saw something they recognized or had forgotten about. We took out ornaments and told stories about how we got each one or something funny the kids said or did last year. I stopped for a moment and just looked at my amazing kids, sitting there in the middle of the total chaos of exploded Christmas boxes, and I looked at Chad, working so hard to make sure we had enough lights on our tree to blow the fuses (the mark of a well-lit tree), and I looked at my sweet, fussy little baby, bewildered by all the unusual stuff in her space. And I thanked God.
For the chaos of family.
For a house small enough to keep us physically close to each other.
For a holiday that points to our Hope.
For a group of people who are depending on me to be the mom.
I want to be a good one.
Today was a wonderful day. Despite my less than stellar attitude this morning, by day’s end, we were all giddy about our beautiful tree. Chad took the older kids out for awhile this evening, and I found myself alone with the baby and her very first glittering Christmas tree. We had a talk about how happy I am that she is here, even if she can be such a….well, baby. Oh, and I also showed the laundry who’s boss.
At bedtime, this family has a house decorated for Christmas, clean underwear, and a tired, grateful, enthusiastic mother. Bring on the holidays.
I am really looking forward to being the mom this Christmas.
Seth had me put up the tree last week :/ …..I’m actually ready for spring. i get stressed out B/c I have to keep the silly house clean at all times for showing and its really hard with 2 kiddos.
But at the same time you can’t replace the look on their faces when they see the tree light up for the first time. I would not change it for world either. I love being a mama. 🙂 great post
Kochei, keeping the house ready for showing with kids is a tough one! Hopefully you won’t have to do that for too much longer! 🙂 Thanks for reading!
Such an inspiring read…love reading your feelings at such memorable times…
Thank you, Brenda! Thank you so much for reading!