Header photo from Pixabay
By Kelli Bowen
I saw a meme the other day that was something like “All the moms are losing their minds this week as all of the dads and kids are excitedly waiting for all the Christmas magic to appear.” I know moms are not 100% the Christmas magic, but let’s lean into this idea.
There’s cleaning, shopping, cooking, parties, programs, cards, and entertainment. I have broken my week into daily tasks leading up to the weekend, a to-do list. It looks something like:
Monday: work 9 or so hours, declutter house, make grocery lists, finish/stuff/mail Christmas letters. Feel guilty over not writing individual messages in each one, move the elf.
Tuesday: work 1/2 day, Christmas lunch meeting, finish shopping, shuttle kids to 2 dance classes and a STEM club, laundry, feel guilty about taking the half-day off to run errands, move that friggin elf.
Wednesday: work 9-10 hours, get house cleaned, wrap remaining gifts, realize there’s no way I’m going to get the out-of-state gifts in the mail in time for Christmas, consider sending Valentine’s gifts instead, move that little red-hatted-evil elf.
Thursday: wrap up work for the week, feel guilty about only putting in an 8-hour day, connect with friends (who I haven’t seen in 6 months) over dinner, feel guilty because I could be getting so much done at home, don’t forget to move that f!@#$%^ elf.
Friday: pick up groceries, frantically track packages that haven’t arrived, entertain kids on first day of Christmas break, sister’s family arrives, chaos ensues, now dodge twice as many people trying to move this d@## elf.
Saturday: Christmas with Family One, drink lots, food prep for family Two, stumble around trying to move elf.
Sunday: Christmas with Family Two, wonder why my head hurts so much-remember the drinking lots the day before, church, Christmas Eve, ring bell to let Santa know we are home, listen to five kids argue about which Christmas movie to watch until it’s way too late and we have time start threatening Santa skipping our house if they don’t get the Heck to bed, FINALLY stuff that elf back in the box and send it back to back-of-closet Hell for another year.
Monday: Christmas morning with kids, sipping spiked coffee to make it through the morning, guests leave, collapse in heap from all of the Christmas cheer, wonder how the house became so messy and why my alcohol cabinet is depleted. Smile at all of the great memories made.
So when you see a frazzled woman this week, be a little more kind, a little more patient, and pour the drinks a little more strong. We are moms and it’s going to be a long week making magic happen.
Kelli makes her home in Cass County with her husband, two daughters (11 and 8) and two dogs. She works for a regional seed company by day and tries to be an alright mom, wife, friend and writer by night.
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