Idea Mama: CONGRATULATIONS, the holidays are over AND you lived to tell about it!

I was so proud of myself that through the busy, stressful and chaotic holiday season I only had two breakdowns. That is an improvement on last year's four and five the year before that. Next Christmas I will shoot for one and maybe with any luck by 2015 I will be down to none! Always aim high!

All that being said, one evening while driving in the car with my 10 year old son, I asked him what his favorite thing about Christmas was. Without any hesitation he said, "the joy." His simple yet profound answer caught me off guard as I expected many other things to come out of his 10 year old mouth. It gave me pause to ask myself if I was feeling the "joy" of the season. I hadn't been seeing all the joy through all the shopping, wrapping, planning, cooking, cleaning, decorating, delivering, etc. etc. and decided then and there to shape up. I also thought that despite the chaos and stress every mother feels during the month of December, I had apparently hid it from him and that was a really good accomplishment! I'm too am grateful for all the joy of the Christmas season and hope it will carry over into 2014!

For me Christmas success is measured in shouts of joy or tears of complete love for the perfect gift. I plan all year for those kind of reactions and this year did not disappoint.

Another most exciting thing was the ever so brief moment when my 10 year old saw the sleigh tracks, reindeer tracks and Santa footsteps to the front door, and I saw him revert to a little child and believe. We called him outside and he came with disgust and a "I'm too old for this stuff," attitude but as he saw the "evidence," his face changed and wonder filled his eyes. It was worth the work I went to even if it was brief. Maybe even my teenagers had a second where they wondered if it could be real and the magic tickled their heart just a little.