An Ordinary Christmas

I've been thinking a lot about how grumpy I sounded in my tag post and I'm going to try to make up for it. This last week my sister found her 8 year old son in his bed, not breathing and without a pulse. A week later he is at home, recovering, yet alive. Without going into all the harrowing details, she and her husband lived through every parent's nightmare and survived. As I talked to her yesterday, she told me that the other night she and her husband went to Walmart to pick up a few things for Christmas, while my mom was at home with her kids. She described the store as packed, the kind of crazy busy that makes most people on a good day want to run straight for a Diet Coke and then bed. She said they were standing in a aisle staring at shaving cream or something for 15 minutes, just dazed from a lack of sleep and emotional weariness. But as she and her husband talked, they realized what a blessing it was for them to even be at Walmart. They were at Walmart doing something entirely mundane, a simple errand that some of us might gripe about. But they were grateful to be doing something ordinary when the alternative might have been suffering for the loss of a child. It meant life was ordinary, not tragic. Sometimes I feel like I'm stuck living a mormon mommy's version of the movie Groundhog Day. But it's a day filled with insignificant, ordinary, and yet magical moments. I love waking up in the same bed, looking at the same man I've seen for the past 6 1/2 years. I love pouring cereal or making pancakes for breakfast every morning. I love that every time I leave my house or return, I get smothered in sloppy kisses and bear hugs from my daughters. After catching a glimpse this week of the alternative, I'm going to commit myself to loving every ordinary moment this Christmas brings rather than wasting time wishing my life was something more than it is. Merry Christmas!