I learned a long time ago that the memories our kids have of the holidays are not those picture perfect ideals that you see in magazines and movies.
In fact, some of their fondest memories of Christmases past are ones that I may not want them to remember – but for them, it’s what made the holiday special or different or just plain enjoyable.
Take the year my son broke his leg sledding on Dec. 23rd (my birthday, by the way) and we had to visit not one but two emergency rooms to get the leg casted properly.
On top of that, I couldn’t even be there with him on the second trip because I was nursing his baby sister who had a bad cold.
Oh yeah, AND we were 1200 miles away from home visiting family…
In Upstate New York where it snows ALL THE TIME and you can’t walk around on crutches so you need to be carried by everyone (poor kid)!
Which also meant we had to take a plane ride to get home with a 6 year old in a full leg cast and an infant.
All four of us squished together in the absolute back seat of a very large and fully crowded airplane.
And TSA doesn’t care if you’re a 6 year old in a cast, they still do a full body search at the security checkpoint (not complaining because we want to be safe, but not what I envisioned as a holiday memory).
Ahh, those priceless Christmas memories that you only have when you’re a mom.
The folks at Sprout totally get it — the funny, crazy but always memorable Holiday MOMents — the ones that you only have when you’re a Mom!
Those “I really can’t believe this is happening but I know we’ll laugh about it later” MOMents.
Kids really don’t remember the gifts that you think they’ll remember.
And they don’t seem to remember those amazing outings to the Nutcracker or even decorating the tree — well, unless something goes wrong and then it seems to be a crystal-clear memory.
“Remember the year the tree fell on Grandpa!”
Yep, it really did. My father was innocently sitting on the couch watching tv and then WHAM! there was a tree in his lap.
Luckily, none of the ornaments broke.
My son ‘mooning’ us during our tree hunt — memories don’t get better than this 🙂
This year, I can totally tell you what the kids will remember — getting our Christmas tree.
You see, I had this wonderful idea of going out to cut down the tree this year because we haven’t done that in quite a while. We had a beautiful weekend – no snow, sunny, 40 degree weather – what more could you ask for, right?
So we grabbed snacks and headed waaaaayy out of town to one of the tree farms they have in our area (a 45 minute drive). And of course, we got a little lost and had to take some back roads so it was actually a little longer.
But we made it and it was quite a farm – tons of gorgeous trees and the staff were really nice! They had saws for us and would help us get the tree to the car, free hot cocoa in the little shed (nothing like Chevy Chase’s Christmas Vacation). So off we go to find a tree among the 100s they had across their 5 acre property.
And we found 4 trees –
They all were either too ‘pokey’ so the kids didn’t want to put ornaments on because their hands would get pricked or they were too short (my goals is to have a tree taller than my teenager).
So after a two hour hunt, we decided that we’d rather buy a tree from the tree lot where we normally get our beautiful evergreen.
Loaded us all back in the car, drove the 45 minutes back to our house and headed to the local tree lot.
When we walked in, my husband sees a tree and grabs it to stand it up. Two women looking near him remark “Wow, that’s a nice one” and it really was – tall, full, no ‘pokey’ needles.
We proclaimed it ‘the one’ – we had the tree tied to the car and were driving back home 14 minutes after we got there.
14 minutes!
We all love to share these memories — there’s a sisterhood in laughing together and knowing that no matter how crazy and un-perfect those MOMents may be, we wouldn’t trade them for anything!
Sprout is celebrating with us all this year by reminding us to laugh, cry and share your own Holiday MOMent.
Visit Sprout to see some of the hilarious and ‘Now I know it’s not just my family’ MOMents that are being shared and be sure to share your favorite MOMent.
Because that’s what the holidays are about — making memories!
So what will my kids remember about this year –
“Mom, remember the year you wanted to cut down the tree and we spent 3 hours looking for one and then found one at the tree lot in 10 minutes!”
Yep, I remember.
But in my mind, it was a wonderful afternoon walking through an outdoor wonderland with my family — and I would do it all again next year just for the memories!
I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.