However, when your finished product doesn't quite measure up, you are left feeling like a failure. When your friends post on Facebook, you see and read their notes and see photos about how awesome everyone's tree trimming and cookie making went, and then there was yours!
Your boys went five rounds over who gets to put up what hockey ornament and where they should go. Someone inevitably ends up in tears or in trouble and you wonder just when exactly the holiday joy is supposed to arrive.
This Thanksgiving was the first one in four years that we were able to spend at home. The older one did not have an ice hockey tournament with his new travel team. He was disappointed. The rest of us were thrilled. My first thought was heading to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and doing other holiday things we usually miss out on. I'd never been to the big parade and it was definitely on my list of activities to experience do. The husband volunteered to cook and stay home with the little one while we ventured out. Now, I was a bit reluctant considering the work involved in hosting Turkey Day. Yet, for once I wanted to try going with the flow.
Both boys agreed to rise early to catch a train before sunrise. Upon arriving in NYC, I quickly realized we weren't early enough! Crowds coupled with the NYPD's sidewalk closures which didn't allow you to cross the street at the corners were a real challenge. Eventually, in the middle of all the complaining, we found a reasonable spot. Of course, by this time, I was ready to bail and catch the next train home.
Thankfully, I persevered and when the giant Snoopy floated down Sixth Avenue and both the boys were awe struck, I was happy I took the plunge. The next day in our travels and appointments, I noticed my older one telling everyone we met that he was at the Macy's Parade and both of them were asking me if we could go again next year. Of course, I might take my sister up on her suggestion to get a hotel room overlooking the route and watching from the window! We met some great people and had a lot of fun, but standing in one stop for that length of time in thirty degree weather was a new kind of cold life in the hockey rink does not prepare you for.
When we got home, my husband was in the middle of a mess and the smoke detector was going off; certainly not the perfect Thanksgiving Hallmark moment. In the end though, the dinner got cooked, the mess cleaned up, and everyone had a great time.
What we need to realize is there simply isn't an ideal anything! Even behind Martha Stewart's idyllic existence, there was a divorce, whispers of unhappy employees, neighbors and a less than stellar relationship with her daughter. In the end, her unfortunate incarceration would cost her credibility and self-respect. While the grass may always seem greener, it usually has weeds just like your does!
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After the battles, the tree was put up and it looked pretty. The two-year-old was enthralled! When we posed in front of it for this year's holiday card, the little one would only be in it if she could wear her Curious George shirt. Of course, she then wouldn't stand where we asked her to and the middle one can never smile on cue without it looking almost comical.
Ours won't be the holiday card with the perfect tree in the background and the three children dressed in matching outfits because that isn't us and it never will be and that is okay!
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