Holiday Happiness

I love the holidays and I enjoy celebrating them all month long. Call me crazy, but I like to celebrate them in their respective months. As a family, we make the most of this time of year and really make time for making lots of memories. I feel like dragging out the holidays can take away from them and their meaning sometimes. It also makes me nuts to be shopping in October and find Christmas decorations up when the words “Halloween costumes” have not even been uttered in our home.

Our daughter started her Christmas fixation before Halloween had even been packed up this year. I thought to myself, how are we going to enjoy the next couple of months if we’re already here? We were knee deep in Christmas videos and singing Christmas carols before most people even knew what day Thanksgiving fell on this year. Then it hit me…She’s excited about Christmas! Holidays have not always been the happiest for her, so that made them difficult for all of us. Sure there were lots of great moments that we were blessed to enjoy, but there were a lot of train wrecks too. Sometimes, at the end of a day, my hubby and I would feel completely defeated. We would grasp some peaceful moments in the evening curled up with a bottle of wine and hope that the next day offered us a reset button. Maybe she would wake up and feel differently that day. She would get so fixated on the date of the holiday that before we ever reached it, she was completely done with it. It just took away a little bit of fun away for everyone and no one more than her.

Was this holiday happiness a fluke? Maybe a one time deal to lull is into a state of bliss only for it to come to a crashing halt on the 25th of December? I thought for sure when her birthday approached in November we would get a nice dose of reality (see my last post about our birthday blessing and lucky #7). Instead it was total birthday bliss! This mama was over the moon!

So, when our daughter donned one of her hat creations just after Halloween (more on this hat thing in another post) to ring in her holiday happiness, everything changed for me. Normally I would feel so grouchy that the holidays were being shoved down my throat so early that I would be in a holiday funk (and may I say, I still can’t stand how commercialized society has made them). This was so different though. She finally understood what it was about. She had Christmas in her heart and wanted to share how merry she was with the world. I felt like she got the true meaning of Christmas…it’s all about love, joy and believing. It may sound hokey, but until that moment I think I had forgotten what it was all about too. I would get so worked up about being so behind in holiday preparations. I was obsessed with getting our decorations up “on time” and making sure everyone had enough presents, that I couldn’t enjoy the true magic of the holiday anymore. It wasn’t her challenges that were stopping me from enjoying it…I was stopping me.

She’s been wishing Merry Christmas to everyone she encounters since last month and I say more power to her. If only more people didn’t get caught up on the words and just felt the love and sentiment that she and others are sharing by saying them. She has the spirit and I think it’s all because she is starting to comprehend things much better. I know that all of her hard work over the years has something to do with that. It wasn’t always easy, but my husband and I, her teachers and her therapists all played a part in helping her grow and get to this point. It makes me so proud to see how far she has come.

Holiday peace and happiness have arrived at our home and let me tell you, it rocks! Her merriment is contagious! In the spirit of the season and our wonderful daughter’s enthusiasm, I hope you will enjoy the holidays, whatever you may celebrate. Be present in the moments and accept holiday greetings as words of love and joy. The spirit of the holiday should really be something we aspire to year round. Oh, and don’t stress about the decorations and all that extra stuff…there are still just four ornaments on our tree, 21 days left until Christmas, no Christmas cards made and not one present purchased. It’s all good people.

Peace, Love & Joy