Christmas

As moms, we tend to cling desperately to those magical years when Santa is real and a stuffed elf does anything but sit on a shelf. But our children grow older and we are faced with the changing landscape of the holidays. Do we tell them the “truth,” or do we assume they know already? Do we cross our fingers and hope their peers don’t make fun of them for fervently believing? Or do we adopt the policy of my college roommate’s mom and double down – even into adulthood - saying “if you don’t believe, you won’t receive?” I’ve been hit hard with holiday fatigue. I’ve grown tired of the charade after 13 years of being the sole person...

Cue the Christmas music and hang up your stockings, it is finally Christmas time y’all! With only weeks away from Santa’s arrival, we wanted to do something to inspire you to keep the little ones occupied. So, we bring you “12 Days of Christmas Crafts.” Much like the popular Christmas song, we will give to you a new Christmas craft idea for 12 consecutive days. The posts will include everything you need to know from ingredients to instructions to little tips. Let’s get right into it! On the first day of Christmas, Red Stick Mom gave to me … Contact Paper Christmas Tree. This activity is perfect for repeated pretend play and for color recognition for those younger ones at home....

I absolutely love Elf on the Shelf and the Christmas magic it brings along. It’s so much fun as a mother to see the excitement every morning when they all run around together to see what they elves did over night. It is, of course, more on my plate as a mother to figure out what they will do and where they will be the next morning, but I also experience the magic of Christmas in doing so. I get so excited thinking about how much the kids will laugh or love what the elves are doing. I look forward to doing my nightly duty and love to find things to do and embrace my creativity. ALL the Possibilities The possibilities...

When I envision getting a Christmas tree, I think about the time we cut down our own at my Grandpa’s cabin in Michigan, snow covering the ground, dragging the gorgeous tree back home and warming up by the cozy fire with hot chocolate as we decorated the boughs. Here in Louisiana, tree getting usually involves a trip to Lowe’s in seventy degree weather, not quite as magical, but still fun. This year we leaned to the extreme opposite of my Michigan dreams and decided on a fake tree from Dirt Cheap since we’ll be out of town for Christmas. The result? Not-so-picture-perfect.  You do this, right? You envision the perfectly magical moment in your head, you stage it with all the...

I have a confession to make. Gird your loins, y’all, because this is going to be unpopular. I hate Christmas. Despise, abhor, LOATHE. I am, essentially, THE Grinch. I’m not sure when the holiday season became a burden, but in the last few years it became abundantly clear to me that Christmastime was less than a holly, jolly season of joy for my three-sizes-too-small heart. I assume it has something to do with the fact that I am, and HAVE, SAD- seasonal affective disorder. At this time of year, my regular anxiety and depression is replaced by my “fancy Christmas anxiety” and depression. The time change is NOT my friend. The pressure to have a picture perfect, magazine worthy Christmas only compounds...