The Christmas Not Me List

Pin It Ah, Christmas. I love Christmas. I'll say it again, I love Christmas. I love the real Christmas story, I love the very idea that the Lord of all creation came to earth as a baby. I love to think about Mary and Joseph, and I love to just sit and wonder what it was all really like. I love the magic of Christmas, I love the excitement, I love the cooler weather (well, when it happens around here!), I love the shopping, the planning, the ability to give gifts to tell my family and friends that I love them. I love that my kids become little saints at about 3 pm on Christmas Eve. Never are they as close as they are that night. I love that they try to sleep all in one bed, and I love hearing them giggle and giggle. I love the opening of the presents, and I love the cooking, and I love the eating. (ahem ... see previous post for more about that ...) I love the Christmas Eve service, and the Christmas lights. I love the old traditions and the new ones (new this year - watching "The Nativity Story" - OH MY what a beautiful movie!!)

I love every bit of it ... until about noon on Christmas day. And then I'm ready for life to get back to normal. And then it's time for the "Not Me's" to kick in.



(Yes, whether or not MckMama posts her not me's, these are just DYING to get out!)

I did not begin disassembling the Christmas tree while the children were still opening presents. I love having my house in disarray while the Christmas tree is in the place of the loveseat, and I love having the loveseat crammed into the family room. After all, more places to drape kids ... and stuff ... is all good, right? Not only did I not begin taking the tree down immediately, I didn't insist that the kids help, either. The words "hey, while you grab that present, put that ornament back in the box" never came out of my mouth. Not once, and not about thirty times either.

Speaking of the number thirty ... my tree did not start with one hundred and thirty ornaments on December 1st and end up with thirty unbroken ornaments left on December 25th. My kids ... and cats ... and dog ... aren't THAT destructive. I'm sure I will not be finding ornaments in my son's room for the next six months either. I didn't save all of the broken ornaments that are somewhat repairable and add them to the ornaments that were broken but somewhat repairable from last year, and several years before that. That would be like two thousand ornaments at this point, and the fact that I haven't repaired them from ten years ago really means that I should just accept the fact that I'm NOT going to repair them, and get rid of them. I'm also not so cheap that I've stuck broken ornaments on the tree, if they aren't broken past the point of all recognition. AND, while we're talking about the tree, I didn't just completely let it go this year, have a BADLY decorated tree, and blame it completely on the kids, primarily the three year old. Oh, the cat got her share of blame too. OH! She's also three. Notice a theme here?

I understand that children get tired and overly emotional and overly excited, and I extend them grace on Christmas day when they're just needing a release. I am a good mom and understand that sometimes they just need to work their emotions out. That would be why I didn't send one of my children to her room for the rest of her life on Christmas day. I'd never do that to a child who just needed a hug and a mom to understand her disappointment that a game she got didn't work. I'd never get my feelings hurt when said child storms up and declares it to be "the worst Christmas ever." And I would never send said child to her room, very loudly ... for the rest of her life. I'm not that kind of mom. (I would, however, hug that child and forgive her instantly when she comes up to me all teary and says she's sorry and she loves all of her presents, even the game that doesn't work. I'd also promise to do whatever I can to either fix the game or replace it.)

I did not gain an insane amount of weight in the month of December. Nope, not me. Not only that, but I am disciplined enough that I'm doing well now, and didn't continue to eat junk all day. I didn't plan a meal around junk food on New Year's Eve, and claim that it's all for the children. I am not going to have to work (HARD) all of January just to undo the damage of December, before even moving forward. I'm also not really angry with myself for this! I have not turned the sentence "The holidays only come once a year!" into a personal mantra either. SIGH.

And speaking of getting healthy, I did not have my feelings hurt by the Wii fit. Nope, it's a COMPUTER GAME and not capable of hurting my feelings. I was not tempted to LIE to the darn thing so that it would not hurt my feelings so much. I mean, I really AM 6 feet tall, right? Not 5'4" like I typed in there. Or maybe it's that I'm wearing really heavy clothes. You know, knit cotton shirts weigh like 25 pounds, right? I'm not sitting here scowling at the Wii fit as I type, just in case you thought I might be.

Okay, I think those are sufficient for the day. It's Monday, the start of a new week. :) My Christmas decorations are gone, the house is back in its normal state of disarray (as opposed to the Christmas version of disarray), the sweets are all eaten, the toys are all played with. It's time to get back to normal, and life is good!