The lights are strung up outside. The scent of fresh pine colors the air. The tree is aglow with enormous cheer. The children race around with excitement, eager to help... A few things break, as is par for the course with 4 and 5 year old helpers. Tummies are fed. Stories are read. And then it is bedtime...
Ahem. Let's just call a spade a spade. Tis' the season for bedtime high jinks. An exhausted BOY just won't wind down. There is much shouting and giggling and gleeful rabble rousing. His sister partakes in the havoc, because...well, why not? BOY must once again run into the living room to view "the most beautiful tree in the land."
I just want to sit and look at it again, mom.
Finally, after time with dad in front of the tree, they wander back to BOY's room. Dad sits and listens to the BOY as he weaves imaginative tales. And the mom? She's done in. She's out for the count. Yet, as she listens to the rise and fall of BOY's voice a room away, she remembers a time when she yearned for evenings like this. Oh, she did... Except, in her fantasy she wasn't this tired...
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Picture courtesy of Google Images
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i loved tom and jerry
ReplyDeleteand yes, this season is a good excuse for not sleeping in the younger set
and the older set, for that matter...
Soo sweet, wanting to look at the tree one more time. Its such a magical time for the kids, but dang, they sure get so wound up!
ReplyDeleteI do that, too... when I'm with the kids and feeling exhausted/exasperated/frustrated, I stop and remind myself of the years when I was single and longing for a family. This is just what I wanted!
ReplyDeleteOK, so this bedtime circus is normal? Good to know! Hope you and your lovely fam are well. I was with my girl for the Sunday School part and was invited to help with communion--it was a treat to offer your BOY the wine! Hope to see you at AS soon XOXO
ReplyDeleteHA! Isn't that the truth?!
ReplyDeleteYou speak the truth.
ReplyDeleteAmen, amen!
ReplyDeletemy boys are ADDICTED to THAT cat and THAT mouse!
ReplyDeletePerfect time to turn off the lights in the room, keep on the Christmas tree lights, and listen to music, thereby winding down the little ones......I remember that!
ReplyDeletehell, I remember my parents doing that trick with ME, much less me doing it with my son.
and have a Jack.
My trick was to put them in the bath, then bundle up in p.j.'s, take blankets and drive around to look at Christmas lights. We did this most nights of the week and they looooved it.
ReplyDeleteIt's not very eco-friendly, but wit the price of gas down . . .
YES - I am more tired in my real life than I ever was in my fantacies too!
ReplyDeleteHope you are doing well, J - sorry I've been so absent - I've missed you. See you soon - Kellan
This is another good reason to REALLY focus on Advent: Advent Wreath, Jesse Tree, John the Baptist narratives...we put up our tree late (week before) and the last two years haven't decorated until Christmas Eve...it makes it so special to let the kids do the decorating...and I'm so beat by then I don't really care HOW they decorate it! Plus, Christmas Morning it is all still New and Exciting!!! Remember: the Christmas Season doesn't END with Christmas Day, it lasts at least until Epiphany....Years ago, it wasn't over until the Feast of the Baptism of Jesus on February 2nd!
ReplyDeleteSo Celebrate, by golly, even if we are more tired than we have ever been in our fantasies!
Pax Christi!