And so it’s 2015
Well.
Christmas break is officially over.
To make matters worse I have to act like I’m all positive and happy about it to keep Caroline from falling into a total pit of despair. Not that it’s really helped considering I had to resort to my non-nonsense standard line, “There are girls in other parts of the world who risk being killed just to go to school and get an education” by yesterday afternoon. And then I snuck off to my closet to call Gulley and whisper, “This is THE WORST! Why can’t Christmas break last forever? I don’t want to go back to the real world!”
The truth is when Caroline was little I didn’t always feel this way. I was relieved when vacation was over and it was time to send her back to preschool for a couple of days each week because it is exhausting to entertain someone who wakes up at 5:45 a.m. and insists all day that “I DO IT MYSELF!” when they have the motor skills of a monkey who’s had too much tequila. It’s like living under the regime of a dictator but with more Dora the Explorer. And so it used to be a nice break to have preschool start again after Christmas.
But now, NOW, I have discovered the beauty of having a big kid. Take heart, mothers of littles, there will come a day when your child will realize there is no point in waking up when it’s still dark outside. They will discover the beauty of a day spent doing nothing but lying on the couch watching movies and it won’t even have to be because they have the flu. They will use actual words to tell you what they want instead of just whining and pointing randomly around the room and, EVEN BETTER, they can make their own sandwich. Glorious days are ahead.
The only downside? The math homework and the science projects.
And so the end of Christmas break is a sad time because it means we are back in the world of needing to use a calendar to keep track of our activities. We’re on the fast track of getting up early, figuring out what to wear, folding laundry because pajamas aren’t acceptable in the real world, finishing our homework, getting to soccer practice and cooking real food with vegetables for dinner. It’s the worst.
Gone are the days when I felt levels of accomplishment rarely seen outside of Nobel Peace Prize winners just because I managed to cut myself off at six sugar cookies, finish a 1,000 piece puzzle, wash the bathmats and still find time to squeeze in three episodes of The Good Wife.
If you need to find me, I’ll be hiding out in my closet looking for the silver lining and trying to remember all the important things I need to do that I was purposely putting off until the new year.
Like exercising. And eating vegetables. And remembering my family needs clean clothes and groceries.
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