I thought I was doing good this holiday season. Seemed to be ahead of the game on my cards, baking, and while I hadn't actually gone shopping, at least I had a solid game plan. Then my husband went and scheduled a flight for me up to visit my Mom on the 20th. So much for the well planned schedule.
Now I come from a long line of Type A personality, planners. We like our schedules. We figure things out ahead of time, we know what has to get done and we do it. And we pride ourselves on being on-time, and even better yet - ahead of the game. Unfortunately for me I married a Type A procrastinator. I still haven't quite figured out how these two seemingly, contradictory traits go together, but for him they do. Phase 1 is peaceful with no worries, there is plenty of time. Enter Phase 2, my wife is starting to bug me that we're running out of time and it's annoying me because there really is still plenty of time. Phase 3, Oh My God!!!! there's no time left!
This year was even worse than previous. Last year I made the mistake of purchasing gifts for my stepdaughters without my husband. What man likes to go shopping? How silly of me - apparently my husband does. He no longer quite knows what works in teenage fashion, but he wants to be a part of the experience. So this year, I waited. And waited. And waited. Until finally we were down to the last available day that we could go together. And, of course, we still needed a tree too.
So, bright and early we headed to the mall and completed all shopping for 3 girls in under 2 hours. Unbelievable. So much for browsing and contemplating the perfect gift. Is that her size? It is, and it's on clearance! Sold! We arrived back home with our bags, dumped them secretly in the house and were off to Home Depot for a tree. 5 mins. later something resembling a tree was tied to our car. So much for my tradition of trekking out to cut down our own. A good friend of mine, also from upstate NY, commiserated with me over our old childhood times and how this year her husband and her went to the local Sears parking lot.
We had our gifts, we had our tree. It was a little over a week before the big day. The tree was in the living room, no lights, no decorations. Wrapping paper remain missing in the attic. Finally the decorations found their way to our bedroom. It would be another two days before they made it to the living room couch. In between working late at the office, delivery cookies, and finishing cards (I thought I was ahead of the game????) the lights got thrown on the tree. Slowly a few brave ornaments found their way onto the tree and then in the final days before Christmas Eve, the tree got decorated. (And while everyone in the family put ornaments on the tree, not one of us did it at the same time.)
The cookies were all delivered. The cards all mailed. And most gifts bought. That only left some last minute purchases and A LOT of wrapping for Christmas Eve. But it all got done. Our last minute Christmas.
I had complained and then joked about how it all came together, but as we sat there Christmas morning all opening our gifts the thing that struck me most was how much of a family we were becoming. We may have not gone through the typical traditions of picking out our tree, decorating it together, baking cookies, numerous trips to the mall to find the perfect gift, and so on. However, gone was the anxiety of past years over who got more gifts, that the girls had to buy gifts for me or Mom, that Mom was there but not other relatives. Instead, there was laughing, smiles, and a general peacefulness. We berated Andy for videotaping us in with our bedhead and pjs. Tara laughed as she opened the dogs' gifts as she had fewer boxes than anyone (but only because she had the most expensive gift). The girls smiled with pride as Mom gushed over the gifts they had purchased with their own money and accord. Hugs and kisses were genuinely given among everyone. It was our own little Christmas miracle.
Do I dare say that it seems our little, crazy, stepfamily might just be becoming a family?
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