Small Success Thursday: Turkey Comas and Family Feasts

Happy first of Advent, happy returning from Thanksgiving, happy recovering from a turkey coma.

We had a small feast, just immediate family, eleven of the twelve present, and a Skype visit with the one daughter down in Florida. We over-ate. We watched movies, we played card and board games, and we entertained some cousins on Saturday. It felt like a vacation.

It was blessed slow, perfect time. We did no shopping, no Black Friday anything. We did no cyber shopping. It was all real time with real people doing ordinary fun things that did not involve buying other than obligatory groceries and Advent candles.

Then, I let my life priorities get messed up. Sunday, with the beginning of Advent, and the start of a new week, I felt the sudden clutch of stress. I'd visited a few people's homes where the lights were already up, the trees trimmed, and the house itself immaculate. I felt, if not jealous, then at the very least unaccomplished. It was November 30th and I'd already flunked Christmas or felt like it anyway.

Fortunately, between my children and husband, the nuttiness of my fruitcake brain was averted. We lit the first candle and feasted that evening. My children reminded me that we planned to do a little Christmas each day, not all of it at once, and I settled down to read a Christmas story to them. (We have a trunk full of just Christmas books so that every day, they get a different one).

And it was better. And that was a small success. The next day, we set up the nativity set, and already, the home feels more as it should. Tomorrow I'm hanging a wreath. What's your small success this week?

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