Decking the halls without decking each other

Each year, on Thanksgiving weekend, we set about decorating the house for Christmas.


Before we had kids, I had in my head images of this idyllic day of spiced apple cider and Anne Murray Christmas carols.  Of casual, slow afternoons full of reminiscing.  Or peace and harmony.

A day of classic, non-commercial ornaments.

And a fireplace where all of the kids had homemade stockings.  (So, I am close, Eli, I'll get it done before you go to school, I promise.)

I never imagined there would be bickering over who got to carry which branch.  Let alone having to remind people not to hit them with each other.

I never imagined me stressing me out over the kids dropping ornaments from my childhood.

I never really thought that we'd be doing this at 3:00 in the afternoon, some of us still wearing our pajamas.

I never pictured how much the random ornaments that no longer have stories would excite my kids.

I never realized how fast little boys could move.

I also never knew how gentle they could be.

While in the next minute sneaking a Rose Bowl football off the tree and tossing it around the room.

I never knew glass geese ornaments that had no stories were so cool.

And how much my kids would love finding pictures of me as a child.

And that they could be fighting one minute, and sharing the next.

I sometimes don't stop and see the characters that they are.

And while there was nary a drop of hot apple cider to be found...  And Anne Murray was replaced by Run DMC's "Christmas in Hollis..."  And while, in the moment, it felt stressful and not really like what I thought it "should" feel like...

I look back and think, "Yes, that is perfect.  It may not be what I ever imagined.  But that?  That is our life."