The Dirty Mommy Club

Usually Christmas is my very favorite time of the year.  I am that annoyingly organized person that has all of my shopping done before the middle of November and my wrapping done by the first of December.  I decorate my house the minute I feel the neighbours won't stare at the decorations thinking I never took them down from last year.  I prepare and send Christmas cards, and usually get the response "yours is always the first I receive".  I go to the malls during December to take in the ambiance, and I attend every Santa Claus parade in a twenty five mile radius.  Yup, I am that person.

Or at least I was until this year.  I looked at my daytimer today to realize that Christmas is two and a half weeks away.  I have no decorations up (save for the Santa my friend Mel dropped off so my kids would have some trace of the holiday season in their home), no place for a tree, let alone a stocking, no shopping or wrapping done, and Christmas cards are but a faint memory.  

I won't be roasting a turkey, or baking cookies Christmas Eve with my kids, or inviting friends and family over for some Christmas spirit.  In fact, it looks like I may not even be staying in my own home on Christmas Eve.

You see, we are renovating our house from top to bottom.  And the project is huge.  I mean, huger (that's a word!) than I could have ever imagined.  And even though the renos started in June, they won't be done.  In the bigger picture, this really isn't a huge deal.  When everything is done in the new year, we will have an amazing house!  It's already starting to take on the feel of the home stretch.  But for a woman with two small children, a full time job, a home business, a husband who works on the house when he's not working, a pregnancy in it's seventh month, this is hard. And mostly because I can't provide my kids with the kind of Christmas I so often envision.  Thankfully, being three and a year and a half, they will have no recollection of this time in their lives.  But I know.  And a mother's guilt is an extremely powerful thing.

So in an effort to keep my sanity, stop the daily crying fits, and provide some sort of positive vibe for my kids, I am attempting to focus on the positives in my life at this time of the year.  Instead of making a seventeen page list of all that is not going well, here is what I'm thankful for:

It seems like a short list now that I put it on paper, but it is the most important of lists. Because each of the items listed don't deal with paint chips, landscaping, or money.  It has to do with people.  And not just any people - my people.  And my people are incredible.

Stephanie aka Dirty Mommy