Any day now you will find all eleven of us at our local dollar store for the evening. Everyone will have their own baskets and will probably be using their coats to keep their precious purchases secret. There will be covert maneuvers and whispered plans between siblings. As the all-knowing mom, I will become the…
When I was a little girl, my aunt made us a nativity set. Every year it came out of storage to remind us of the story of Christ’s birth. It was plush, soft, and familiar, with rosy-pink blush painted on each character’s cheeks. My brother and I carefully unwrapped every bundle in hopes we might…
I have a love/hate relationship with planning. I’m a planner by nature, and I thrive on it, but I can also take it to the extreme and become overly concerned with my plans turning out perfectly. My youngest child was born in September 2013. At the time, my firstborn was only fifteen months old, so…
As a child, I never believed in Santa. My husband’s parents, on the other hand, went all out to preserve Santa, even writing letters to their kids from the North Pole and not putting gifts under the tree until Christmas morning. Strangely, the Are we going to raise our kids to believe in Santa? discussion…
I love Christmas, and I love traditions. But I also love my sanity. You see, the thing about traditions is you have to keep doing them. That’s what makes them traditions, right? Oh, the pressure. My kids are in a fun season. They’re nine, seven, and four, and they’re starting to remember (and expect) the…
Every Christmas when I was growing up, my grandparents bought me a new wood ornament in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Each one has my name and the year written neatly across the front. Each one represents a part of me. I have a Minnie Mouse, a ballerina, a cheerleading teddy bear, and even a sewing machine. By far those are my…