Not every special delivery that arrives three weeks before Christmas will be twin baby girls. But mine was.
Pretty exciting. Pretty exhausting.
So much to learn at the same time as we were just trying to keep up. I was so tired I thought I could feel it in the marrow of my bones.
But I was young and naive enough to think I could still carry on with Christmas plans, and I guess I felt like I had something to prove. I was still doing the turkey and trimmings for Christmas day despite wise advice to fall back and re-group. I didn't pay any attention.
Christmas morning, after gifts were exchanged and family had come and gone, I went into the kitchen fondly expecting to get the turkey ready for the oven.
I was devastated to discover that the thing was still a frozen carcass. I sat on the floor and cried.
That action should have been a clear indicator to me that I had it less together than I realized. I felt like a failure, even though nobody else thought this.
They figured, the fact that I was able to get up in the morning and put my clothes on frontwards and right-side out and get my three kids dressed ... that was pretty major success right there. But my standards had not yet gone through a good ol' reality check.
Till Christmas morning. Reality swept in while I sat on my kitchen floor.
I don't know what we had for dinner that night. I know that whatever it was, I didn't prepare it.
I was fortunate to have a husband who knew when to take over the reins, and I was tired enough and beaten enough to let him. The rest of the day I spent cuddling with my three year old son and three week old babies.
My baby girls are now twenty-five years old, but though a quarter of a century has passed, some facts of life do not change.
Maybe you aren't having twins. But if you are expecting a special delivery sometime during the weeks before Christmas, be smarter than I was.
Admit to yourself that life is going to change, and be kind to yourself. Put the wrapping paper and lists aside for awhile and put your feet up.
Read a book. Have a nap. Watch a sentimental Christmas movie.
Rest up. Because bigger things than Christmas are on the way.
Visit Jody's website and blog at http://www.ncubator.ca and http://ncubator.ca/blogger