It is always so funny to me how many Christmas decorations we see as we travel each Thanksgiving to go visit our peeps in North Carolina.
I should confess here that I am one of “those” people.
The ones who pretty much boycott anything Christmas until after Thanksgiving. Yep. I feel pretty strongly that Thanksgiving totally gets the shaft. You can never have too much Thanks or Giving, really. Can you? No, people, you cannot!
But once Thanksgiving gets its due, I turn into one of those “every day should be Christmas” people. I mean, we shouldn’t just celebrate Jesus’ birth one day a year. Even Ebenezer Scrooge figured out that we should keep Christmas in our hearts all year long.
And what is Christmas about? Certainly the birth of our Savior is the number one focus. But for me, as with Thanksgiving, Christmas is also about family, love, gratitude, and giving.
So, here we are again.
On the cusp of the crazy Christmas chaos—something I try every. single. year. to avoid. Some years I do better than others. This year, though, I guess, I am feeling the need, just a little more than usual, to slowly savor each moment and intentionally focus on what is truly important during this season.
Now that my kids are 17 (going on 18 in a couple of months! ACK!) and 14 (going on 30), I am starting to feel this urgency. It goes a little something like this:
“Holy crap! They’re growing up too fast, and they are going to leave me, like, SOON! Cling! Cling! Cling!”
Do any of you other mamas feel me out there?
I look at these budding adults and though I feel so much pride and joy and hope and excitement for their futures, I also look at them with a tear in my eye and smidge of nostalgic bittersweet-ness. (Is that a word?)
I know they are growing up, and though I am trying very hard to be realistic, I just want to hang on to these fleeting moments with them.
To pretend for just a little while, that they are still my babies, standing there in their matchy-matchy Christmas pajamas, looking up at their daddy and me with those glistening expectant faces on Christmas morning.
I look at these two faces with such gratitude. I am so thankful for these amazing human beings who are still my babies— and will always be!
“It kills you to see them grow up. But I guess it would kill you quicker if they didn’t.” ~Barbara Kingsolver, Animal Dreams