Christmas is the season for doing too much. 90% of the time I am ok with that. Kat and I are certainly guilty of that. In 1997 a pregnant Kathleen and I purchased
our tree, brought it home and hung lights on it on a Monday night from midnight
to 2am when we both had to work the next morning. Why? Because Kat’s Tuesday night bingo group
was coming to house after work. Too
Much? A few years ago after we were
living in Colorado and we decided to have our Christmas party back in Oklahoma
not only did I decorate our home in Colorado, but I transported boxes, bins,
and bags of decorations to decorate the hall where we were having our party. I also transported a silver punch bowl. When Kat expressed concern that not
everything would fit, I volunteered to only take 2 pair shoes if that would
help. TOO MUCH!
I have said before I am something of a mad genius at engineering
these ‘perfect Christmas memories’. They
key is obsessive planning and the set up.
If you do that correctly, then when the actual moment arrives something
will happen, and you just have to be there for it. If you are lucky it is magical. Or it is a disaster, in which case you have a
hilarious holiday memory instead. See?
Mad Genius.
Tomorrow is our annual children’s ornament party. I thought a great deal about it this
year. My boys are on the upper end of
childhood, what if they and their friends are all eye rolling teenagers making
jokes at my expense this year? I am not
sure I could handle that. Lucky for me,
when I asked Paul’s BFFL (Best Friend For Life) Katie about it she said we
should definitely have it, because of course Hilda and Kyle are still kids and
it’s usually fun even for the older kids.
Reason #1. Now that we are back
in Oklahoma I could invite my Niece Elisa Gail to come and bring her children
Ella and Aiden. Reason #2 (Although her drill schedule interfered with this
year). Another benefit of being back in
Oklahoma is my nephew Baby Scott (who just turned 25) could come with his wife
and baby Seamus. Reason #3.
How adorable and sweet and perfect would that be? Scott came to the first ornament party and
his child will be coming to this one. I
love that so much!
What does this have to do with letting go? The plan for this year is gingerbread houses,
and yes we are cheating and doing the graham cracker houses for the kids. I also wanted to do 2 bigger houses and let
the kids work together to decorate those.
I asked Kat if she could make the gingerbread houses for me. And of course she agreed, because she is Kat
and amazing. So I borrowed a gingerbread
house cutter kit and got the recipe for Kat.
Her plan has been to do it this week.
And then suddenly it was Friday.
Right after dinner Friday we went to the store for eggs so Kat could
come home and make the gingerbread house pieces. But then suddenly it was 10 pm and still no
houses. So Kat made a plan to get up early today and make the gingerbread
houses and the 9 batches of fudge she has orders for.
But of course things don’t go as planned, and the
gingerbread houses didn’t get baked. Fudge yes, but houses no. We had an event tonight and Kat said after
the event she would make the gingerbread houses. So when we stopped at the store for Diet Coke
I purchased the pre-made kits. Is it the
same as homemade gingerbread houses? Of course not. Will it smell as delightful and Christmassy?
No probably not. With either of those
things interfere in any way with the fun that the children will have tomorrow
or their memories of it? Absolutely not.
So that was me letting it go ho ho ho.
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| 2013's Gingerbread House |
Do me a favor? Bite the head off a gingerbread man for me!
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