Just in the St. Nick of Time

Tis the season to be busy. And busy. And busier still.

Ever since the calendar flipped to December my mind and my life seem to have been overflowing with need to's, have to's, gotta get to's, and don't have time to's. You may have noticed there aren't too many want to's in there either.

Of course there's the usual holiday madness, which includes but is not limited to, gift shopping, card sending, party going, tip leaving, party contributing, craft making, house decorating, school party planning, tree chopping, family visiting and dinner planning. Then in our house we have two birthdays this month, which include but are not limited to, invitation sending, party planning, gift buying, party planning, cake making, party planning, balloon buying and then some more party planning.

More on the party planning part later, but suffice it to say I went above and beyond this year so that I could get a feel for a possible new career.

So as you can tell, it can be quite busy around here. After all the dishes and laundry and all that other usual crap doesn't happen by itself. All of these must do's ricocheting around my brain are making my mind crack in small fissures, allowing my sanity to slowly slip out. And among the many things oozing into its place are all kinds of noises let loose from my shrieking son, which literally reverberate in my head and force out any bits of sanity I might still have left.

To top it off, I was going to be completely on my own today, with my husband out the door before the kids were out of bed and not home until they were all asleep. Honestly, I wasn't sure I'd have the energy or the attitude for it.

And then this afternoon happened. Just in the nick of time, my children had a completely fun-loving, game-playing, rule-following afternoon with just about no prodding from me.

They laughed and played, never disagreed once, kept the baby happy and occupied, ate all their dinner, got into and out of the bath with almost no nagging, cleaned up the playroom when asked the first time and even had their dirty clothes in the hamper the second they came off their bodies.

And to top it off I had two hilarious moments that maybe wouldn't be so funny to anyone else outside our family, so I won't bore you with the detailed descriptions, but they had me laughing almost to tears with my kids.

There's just nothing better than shared laughter.

Suddenly the stress of it all just melted away. I was going to try to sneak in some late night errands tonight after my husband returned home from his business dinner. It was a last ditch effort to ease some anxiety about what's left on that long list. But he called and said he'd be late, just as I was thinking to myself, who am I kidding? I don't want to go out at 8 o'clock at night to run errands.

This afternoon and evening made me see what is really important. And it let me say to myself, LET IT GO, JESSICA.

Twas truly a christmas miracle.