CHRISTMAS MUSINGS

There isn’t a mother alive who doesn’t think she’s Superwoman a month before Christmas. If there are 30 days left, mountains of things can be accomplished---she thinks.

It will be a snap to do the shopping, baking, sewing, gift wrapping, tree and house decorating, entertaining . . . my goodness, 30 days is plenty of time to get all of these things done. Somehow, a memory lapse has occurred, temporarily blocking out the fact that there will still be dishes, cooking, laundry, house cleaning and changing diapers---all the normal chores that take 24 hours a day plus an 8-hour a day job away from home.

She envisions how cute the kids would look in new home-sewn flannel pajamas for picture-taking on Christmas morning. And, she just bought the darlingest material to make matching outfits for the kids to wear to the family Christmas party at Grandma’s. She’s just got to try those new cookie recipes in Better Homes and Gardens and this is the year she has decided to try her hand at dipping her own chocolates.

Temporary insanity takes over just after Thanksgiving and mothers forget the age-old phenomenon which gives the days between Thanksgiving and Christmas only 20 hours each. Not until after Christmas do days go back to their normal 24 hours.

Mothers wonder why each child’s school Christmas program is on a different day. Why can’t they all be on the same day? She has forgotten that it was the same last year. (Well, maybe she’d better stick with the old standby cookie recipes.)

Darn it! Why did little Susie have to get the stomach flu right before Christmas? That shoots another day and a half. (Perhaps dipping her own chocolates wasn’t such a good idea this year.)

Her husband belatedly informs her he has promised his boss four of her homemade apple pies for his company party. (Oh well, the kids can wear the clothes they wore on the first day of school for the party at Grandma’s.)

Someone calls to remind her of the two loaves of homemade bread and a pan of cinnamon rolls she promised for the church bake sale and Christmas party. (Some of the cookies in the bakery case at the grocery store will have to do for unexpected guests---if she serves them with her special hot wassail.)

Finally, her very best friend calls and asks for help with a Sub-for-Santa project. How can she say no? (While she says “yes,” she tries to decide which pair of the kids’ pajamas has the fewest holes to wear on Christmas morning.)

Mothers are lucky to get the shopping done at all and she decides at 3:30 a.m. Christmas morning that the toys will look very festive under the tree---without being wrapped. (As it is, she rarely gets to bed before 5:00 a.m. Christmas morning and the kids wake up at 5:30.)

So, Dad . . . after all the presents have been opened, dinner has been eaten and all the company has gone home, if Mother collapses in bed, don’t be too hard on her. Pamper her by putting the kids to bed. While she sleeps, dreamless, in total exhaustion, you can smile, secure in the knowledge that she really is Superwoman.

[I wrote the above article for a writing class when I had young children. It pretty well described my life at the time. After Jack and I moved to the Lake Powell area, I submitted an article to the local newspaper in Page, Arizona and also to the newspaper in Kanab, Utah. They liked my style and asked for weekly articles. I wrote for both newspapers for a few years in the late l980’s and early 1990’s. I dug this one out of my material from my writing class, submitted it and it was published December 17, 1990, under “MUSINGS by Marilyn Ehlers.”

It occurred to me that most of you do not know about that particular time of my life and I thought you might find this article amusing. If you do, I can, from time to time, share some of the other articles I had published.]

December birthdays: Happy Birthday to Jack, December 11th; Bret, December 21st; Jackie, December 22nd; Nathan, December 25th; and Kadi, December 31st. Hope you all had/have a wonderful day. I love you all.