If you’ve decided this is the year you’ll categorically prevail in producing the finest Christmas your family has experienced, then perhaps you should consider the possibility you’ve been streaming too many sappy Hallmark holiday movies. However, after you’ve reconsidered this idealistic mindset that is prompting this lofty goal and still wish to pursue it, then it’s best to put aside any attempt to recreate the artificially produced flicks and delve into the nitty-gritty of what it truly takes to arrive at the la crème de la crème holiday. Let's create your list.
First, you must dig, and wrench, and pull from the depths of your soul the most staunch and endless amounts of patience to guide you through the task you’ve chosen to conquer. It will be needed to tolerate tiny sticky fingers smearing chocolate on your new white IKEA sofa you overpaid for after contemplating what the cleaning cost of a white sofa might add to the budget. Now you will find out. The lesson of your primed patience will be that those chocolaty children also produce the most delightful giggles stirring tingly gladness starting in your toes, spiraling shivers of memories throughout your body of your own messy hands in days past accompanied by irrepressible giggles while lying in bed forcing your eyes to close as you were certain you heard Santa’s reindeer on the roof.
Second, you must develop a method of smiling at the person across from you that allows you to listen to drawn out and recycled stories you already heard this morning and are hearing again tonight from relatives who have seen darker days and longer years than you’ve yet to imagine in a fitful dream. To be adept at affixing your smile, think of the days when that person was spry and jovial, all senses intact, commanding the room with their knowledge and insight before their body and mind collapsed under the weight of time. You can then cast your mind forward to the days ahead when their stories are silenced and the responsibility to pass down the heritage falls on your shoulders. You’ll be the one sharing the story of this perfect Christmas to the grown version of those sticky little people running through the kitchen now begging for a cookie, and they will be facing you with fixed and agreeable smiles.
Third, be prepared to swallow your pride when the piano key clinks the first note of a Christmas carol and the singing commences. There will be no opportunity to abandon your quest when you remember that carrying a tune is not your forte, and it’s been sometime since you stood on the front row of the church choir memorizing the words of each precious song that elevated excitement and anticipation of Santa Claus and highlighted the reverence of the birth of the Savior. Those images will wipe from your heart any vanity that threatens to overshadow your exuberance and quiet your loud exaltations, however off key they may be.
And Fourth, because where would you be without a fourth item on your plan to deliver to your family the perfect Christmas? You must stand firm in the belief that no matter how awry the day may go, whether you’ve sidestepped inappropriate comments from Uncle Joe more than a dozen times, or the sweater you unwrapped went out of style with disco, or watched the stumble of Aunt Patty who clearly did not refuse the third cup of eggnog, and with a sigh - have wholly accepted that the cast of characters surrounding you with their imperfections and no stage directions, are more important than the four things you’ve managed to scribble on your list.
And last, but certainly not least, you must write over and over again so that you won’t forget, to remember your blessings and burn that sentiment into your heart. This will cement for the mission that no matter how imperfect the holiday may be, or how many glass decorations the cat knocks from the tree and you sweep away and toss in the bin, or whether you agree the turkey was a bit too dry, that the simple act of coming together and holding a hand that may have been lonely before this day and emits a smile or chatter followed by a heartfelt prayer, will imprint upon you the necessity of recalling the reason for the season. This will win your day as you check your list, then check it twice, and deliver to those you love…the perfect Christmas.
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