Friends, I’m not bothering with a time-saving post because there is no time left to save. I know there’s this little itty bitty day in between now and the big day, but really, for all intents and purposes, Christmas is upon us.
Although I once did all my Christmas shopping Christmas Eve (all thoughtful gifts, oh my!), now I’m going to suggest it’s time to let go. Take a deep breath over a drive to the mall. Opt for sleep and sanity, and save the sales. Be the good cheer you were otherwise planning to bring, buy or bake.
From 4mothers to you, we wish you the best cheer the season has to offer. Happy holidays!
4 Mothers 
Wishing all Four Mothers (and all the other moms and dads out there) a gentle year filled with lots of good cheer, family fun, good health, and oodles of prosperity. Thank you for those wonderful little slices of the parenting life that arrive daily in my inbox – my children are all grown, but the blogs bring back so many memories of how amazing and how hard parenting is – memories of those days when the patter of four pairs of little feet (that grew into louder thumps) were part of my daily life. My little gift to you from my perspective as a grandmother:
First of all, you are all doing incredible jobs. Pat yourselves on your heavily burdened backs.
I wish I’d understood how short the time is that children are little – it seems so never-ending in the thick of it. I would have taken more time to lie on the floor with them, watching spiders and shadows, snowflakes and bugs, and … the world unfolding. I would have left more dusting, vacuuming, washing, ironing, shopping, etc. for later (although I was good at doing that since Procrastination is my middle name) and listened to how they see the world (as I do now with my grandsons). Children have so much wisdom that we lose on the way to being “responsible” adults.
Picasso was so right – we spend the first twenty years of our lives trying to become adults, shedding childhood things, and then the next sixty years trying to recapture childhood.
So, Moms, have fun with your kids – find ways daily to entice them to fill your homes with the sound of laughter and wonder. Children are magical.
Remember to enjoy parenting – it ends one day and you’ll miss it. And remember that you do not have to be Perfect Moms – as Bowlby said, you just have to be Good Enough.
Big, gentle hugs for the holidays and all year round from Marcelle’s Mom-in-law. Marce, you are an amazing mom to two amazing boys. Thank you.
Elsha,
Thank you for your warm wishes for the holidays and the grandmotherly words of wisdom. They are a lovely gift, as is a little perspective during these days of fairly intense childrearing and holidaying. All the best to your family this season,
Carol