Dear Addie,
It is Mental Health Awareness Month, and I had the honor of using the Christmas plate this weekend. Now before you think I have officially lost my mind, I am 100% aware that those two things do not sound like they go together in any stretch of the imagination, and Christmas is still seven months away, but I promise they do, and I can explain.
You see, Addie, I love Christmas. Like all of it. The smells, the lights, all things Grinchy, crazy Christmas sweaters, the music, the food, the family, your birthday is literally the day after, obviously the reason for the season – it all feels like a great big hug to me, and fills my cup with so much joy. No lie, every year my interior decorating date creeps a little earlier on the calendar. While the outside of my house is adorned with a 25ft fire-breathing blow-up dragon and spooktacular decorations for Halloween, the inside is slowly being transformed into a Christmas wonderland! I think Daddy has finally accepted that I cannot be stopped (shhhhh, I think he secretly loves it just as much as me… just saying.)
OK now before you think I have overlooked Thanksgiving, fear not, it’s my favorite meal of the year, and anyone who knows us well knows we make turkey and all the fixings multiple times a year, even in the middle of the summer - I’m pretty sure that must make us like super thankful 😉 I know, I know, what does this have to do with the Christmas plate?
Ok, so while packing up all the Christmas extravaganza this past year, I left our cookie plate out and decided to insert it into our dinner plate rotation. When we set the table, it is always a surprise who will get it that night at dinner. It is a minor thing, but I swear whoever is the lucky recipient is smiling a little bigger and sitting a little taller through dinner like their cup just got the splash of joy it needed. It’s less about the plate and more about the feeling, and I think as parents, one of the greatest gifts we can give is to be an example of how to fill your life with joy and how we choose to allow ourselves to be filled with it. It doesn’t always have to be some grand gesture.
This past weekend was Mother’s Day, and some mamas, I’m sure, found joy in dressing up the family in their Sunday best and heading out to a fancy brunch. Some may have found joy in alone time in a hotel spa, or some may have found an endless amount of joy in putting on their snake boots, having a date with mother nature digging in the garden, being gifted composting worms, drinking homemade pina coladas, listening to their husband coach their youngest daughter to say Happy Mother’s Day from another room only to have her shout “Happy Birthday” in its execution and eating dinner on a Christmas plate. Confession, that last one, that’s me; I’m that mama 😉! And yes, you said Happy Birthday with such pride!
The point is that not everyone finds joy the same way, which is ok. It’s about filling your cup, not everyone and their cousins. Remember that always baby girl. It is your peace and your joy that you need to keep in check, and when your cup is filled, it just might overflow to help fill others when they might find themselves needing a little extra splash. Life is sticky and complicated, so do what makes you happy, however small or silly, even if it is just eating on a Christmas plate in May.
Thank you for a beautiful weekend, baby girl. I feel so blessed every day to have this wonderful family. My cup truly runneth over.
I love you.
Mom
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