It looks like the holiday’s are officially over here and the dead of winter is setting in. Last Sunday, I reluctantly took down the Christmas tree, the lights, the garland, and the nativity scene. I tucked away all five of baby’s first Christmas ornaments along with baby’s first Christmas stocking. As I carried it all back down to storage, I found it so sad. The past couple of weeks and even the past month have been full of wonderful memories that complete what has been baby’s first Christmas, a time that only happens once.
Let me back up. My sister had the past two weeks off of work. Which I took full advantage of. Not only did she want extra cuddle time with the baby, I needed to get out of the house and fight the crowds without the baby. I finished my Christmas shopping, got an overdue pedicure, wandered through Target clearance, got my hair done, my eyebrows waxed and my Husband and I went to the comedy club with some friends. The whole time I knew my daughter was safely at home, with someone who knew her schedule just as well as her father and I do. That right there, priceless.
We traveled from family Christmas to family Christmas where Cora met all of her extended family. This included her first trip to Grandma’s house, through a horrible snowstorm, that we counted 67 people in the ditch on the way. We went out to eat way too much to celebrate every damn birthday we have in December. We took Cora to see Santa and binged watched Hawaii 5-0 on Netflix. Somedays didn’t require getting out of our pajamas.
In the middle of it all Cora decided to go from waking up twice a night to just once a night. Her schedule slowly becoming more defined. And then suddenly she found us hilarious. The kind of hilarious where she has the biggest, gummy smile and laughs, coos and tells us stories. She also decided to throw us for a loop and instead of increasing how much she eats at once, she would just like to eat the same amount more often. Meaning she wants to eat every two hours instead of three, which makes traveling or going anywhere quite difficult.
On Christmas Eve I kept trying to convince myself that I wasn’t getting sick but my body had other ideas. By Christmas night, I was going to bed early with Cora and fighting a cold, while wondering how to not pass it along to her. Turns out, it happened anyways. A trip to the doctor to tell me there wasn’t much we could do for her and we found ourselves on the couch every night sleeping. Her right next to me in the inclined bassinet, humidifier running. Baby’s first cold on baby’s first Christmas. Which in turn meant we had to cancel our New Years Eve party and settle for a family dinner out only to head home to go to bed early. I saw 2015 leave us and 2016 arrive as I was trying to keep the dog from barking at the fireworks, making sure the baby didn’t wake up from the barking and yelling at my Husband to quit snoring.
I slowed down. I let things go. I only took on what I could manage. I was lazy when it felt right, worked out when it felt right, drank too much wine and sat every night thanking God that I could lay under the Christmas tree and stare at the lights with my daughter. Cora won’t remember any of the memories her Dad and I have of this Christmas. She will see the pictures and we will tell her the stories one day. We will tell her that it was magical and just what it should have been.
I hope a little bit of Christmas magic found its way to each of your homes and I hope 2016 holds even more for you all.
Through My Mistakes 