Lovely essay! And if it helps, it may not have to change that much. My grown siblings and I still have Christmas morning every year at my parents’ house, just like we’ve been doing since we were little. (Now we just bring our own kids!) I bet your future looks something like that.
Very true! I do think though that at some point I won't want to spend Christmas morning with my ex-husband...lol...and I now have adult stepkids, etc, so it's definitely going to look different *somehow*. I am now looking back and remembering how hard my ex and I drew that line in the sand with our parents about not leaving home with our kids on Christmas Day. I still support younger me for making that decision and of course, will support my kids if they have their own variation on that boundary, but I can only imagine now that they must have been biting their collective tongues, or fighting back their own sadness.
All very true. And I guess what makes it easier for us (my three brothers and my parents) is that we all live in the same city, so there’s no travel required. For sure it’s trickier when people are spread out, which of course is more common.
I envy you so much your tight brood of kiddos. Definitely makes me wish we’d had more than two kids, to create a tribe like that, with those bonds.
Funny, I was just thinking of writing something about why I'm glad I had so many now. Of course, I think two kids can be just as close as a larger number, but it feels sort of like insurance :)
So beautiful, Meagan! This is my absolute favorite part: "All our longing for forever-togetherness, packed into a few days. All our hopes for permanence distilled into fragile, temporary moments we can’t keep or relive." So insightful, so poetic. Thank you.
Loved this essay and a peek into the future, Meagan! I especially loved these lines: "At some point, I’ll be ready for it to be over. Yet I’ll really never be ready for it to be over. That’s motherhood in a nutshell, I suppose, and maybe Christmas is just the densest, most concentrated version of the nutshell’s contents." So true about motherhood at all ages. I hope you all have the merriest Christmas, Meagan!!
Lovely essay! And if it helps, it may not have to change that much. My grown siblings and I still have Christmas morning every year at my parents’ house, just like we’ve been doing since we were little. (Now we just bring our own kids!) I bet your future looks something like that.
Very true! I do think though that at some point I won't want to spend Christmas morning with my ex-husband...lol...and I now have adult stepkids, etc, so it's definitely going to look different *somehow*. I am now looking back and remembering how hard my ex and I drew that line in the sand with our parents about not leaving home with our kids on Christmas Day. I still support younger me for making that decision and of course, will support my kids if they have their own variation on that boundary, but I can only imagine now that they must have been biting their collective tongues, or fighting back their own sadness.
All very true. And I guess what makes it easier for us (my three brothers and my parents) is that we all live in the same city, so there’s no travel required. For sure it’s trickier when people are spread out, which of course is more common.
I envy you so much your tight brood of kiddos. Definitely makes me wish we’d had more than two kids, to create a tribe like that, with those bonds.
Funny, I was just thinking of writing something about why I'm glad I had so many now. Of course, I think two kids can be just as close as a larger number, but it feels sort of like insurance :)
So beautiful, Meagan! This is my absolute favorite part: "All our longing for forever-togetherness, packed into a few days. All our hopes for permanence distilled into fragile, temporary moments we can’t keep or relive." So insightful, so poetic. Thank you.
Loved this essay and a peek into the future, Meagan! I especially loved these lines: "At some point, I’ll be ready for it to be over. Yet I’ll really never be ready for it to be over. That’s motherhood in a nutshell, I suppose, and maybe Christmas is just the densest, most concentrated version of the nutshell’s contents." So true about motherhood at all ages. I hope you all have the merriest Christmas, Meagan!!
Thank you for sharing this. Beautifully written.