‘Twas the Loneliest Door on the Block
Well Christmas has officially come and gone, and the door to our home was lovingly adorned with a beautiful but ever-so-lonely red velvet wreath hook. No wreath. Just a hook. Why you ask? Well, my well intentions to procure the perfect wreath to welcome us home each time we entered our door just never quite took flight. Instead, the bare wreath hook mocked me each time I turned left out of the elevator and saw it down the hall staring back at me in all of its barren splendor.
2016 was my baby’s first Christmas. And while the Holiday Season is famed for devouring our time and energy and catapulting us into the New Year before we even know what’s happened…. ‘Aint no time warp like life with an infant (amiright mommies??). So here we are, 5 days post-Christmas and I’ve got another item to add to my mommy failure list alongside not taking my babe to meet Santa and never getting a Christmas card out.
But lets get real here. So I didn't get a wreath up. So what! [Spoiler alert] We had an amazing Christmas and spent time with both sides of our family from Vancouver Island, BC down to Portland, Oregon. I decided that my “failure” to get a beautiful wreath hung on our door was actually proof that I was busy enjoying my sweet babe, my husband, friends from out of town, family… Oh wait, isn’t that what the Holidays are all about??
Mamas and childless-babes alike, let’s get rid of the negative self-talk and lies we tell ourselves that we are anything less than perfection just wholly being who we are. After all, the things we tell ourselves are true to us, and thus our reality. What if we lived in that truth? Imagine how that would affect our everyday.
When I got home from our Christmas travels and saw that silly little lonely wreath hook still hanging on our door I actually laughed as we rolled our luggage through the door and my husband carried our baby boy inside. My heart was full. I didn’t need the Christmas card or the Santa visit or a wreath to fulfill the magic that Christmas offers.
I think next year I may hang an empty wreath hook on our door just to remind myself of what’s important.
Three Generations of Martin Men
Baby's first Christmas with my husband's side of the fam in Qualicum Beach. Aspen is taking a snooze during the photo sesh....naturally. PS I got engaged in front of that fireplace! :)
Aspen loved the crinkle of the wrapping paper! He's opening an adorable KicKee Pants footie here with his Papi and the help of his cousins in Portland on Christmas Day
xoxo
gretchen
