‘Tis the Season – Well, it WAS the season! I wrote this right before Christmas, but never posted it. I thought I would post it today anyway – over a month after the holidays….because, well, why not?

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year.

I do love the holiday season, I really do. There is a long history of the women in my family loving Christmas. My Nanny, my mother’s mother, LOVED the holidays. And she did a miraculous job of providing a lovely holiday every year for her 5 children with challenges of little money and a difficult marital situation. My own mother continued this love of the holidays. We grew up with a beautifully decorated house, magical presents, wonderful food, and many, many loud and happy family gatherings.

Now that I am the one making all the preparations, I have become so grateful for what my mother did each and every holiday. The decorating, the present buying, the preserving of the Santa magic, and on and on. It all seemed so effortless. It seemed like it all just came together. But I know differently now. Like all the work of the motherhood, holiday preparation is largely thankless. And often the mother prepares for everyone else and little is prepared for her. For the most part, I think we mothers feel so happy watching our family revel in the holiday magic that we have created, that we are not thinking about ourselves. I know for me, I used to love and look forward to receiving presents, but now I hardly think about that. I think much more about what I am giving and how excited the receiver will be. I guess that is a part of growing up. This is a good change. I have gratitude for this change.

But everyone once in a while, I think about how wonderful Christmas was for me as a child, and wish I could have that feeling again. I can’t. And that is OK. The new feelings are just as wonderful, although different. But still…

And I think about how Christmas is the perfect opportunity for all of us grown up daughters to say a special thank you to our mothers for all the magic of Christmases past.

And so I will: Thank you Mom. I hope you have (had) a wonderful holiday.