Among the many things I discovered this holiday season is that it really is possible to be a parent and sleep in on Christmas morning.
I’d all but given up the notion that I might feel anything but queasy from sleep deprivation on Christmas day, after nearly 15 years of parenthood, but sleep in I did, until nearly 7 a.m. Hallelujah!
Santa won’t soon forget this act of kindness, dear children. It’s a first for me and rates right up there with my other all-time favorite Christmas moments, including one that happened this year on Christmas Eve, after the kids and my niece, Erin, decorated their last batch of Christmas cookies.
The girls wandered off, leaving Noah and me alone in the kitchen, when I realized that there was a ton of extraneous red and green sugar on the cookie sheet. Worried it might burn as the cookies baked, I carefully tipped the cookie sheet over the sink to dispose of it, but ALL of the sugar slid off – even the sugar on the cookies!
“Shoot! What do I do now?” I whispered, worried the girls would be upset I’d destroyed their creations (all right, all right, so I said something spicier than shoot), and Noah, in his typical, unflappable style, responded by randomly tossing a bunch of red and green sugar onto the cookies, and quickly popping them back into the oven. I laughed so hard I cried. That boy sure comes through in a pinch.
The best part? The girls didn’t even notice. Crisis averted.
Another thing I discovered this Christmas? Just how much I love the film “The Sound of Music.” Though not a Christmas movie per se, it’s always aired at this time of year. Go figure.
Anyhow, much to my delight, I happened upon it Sunday night after my brother and sister-in-law retired to their hotel and I cleaned up the last of the lasagna dishes. Someone had left the television on in my bedroom after watching a football game and there it was. You know how you don’t make time to watch the classics unless you stumble upon them? I won’t make that mistake next year.
Oh me oh my, I do love the way Christopher Plummer gazes at Julie Andrews. Gives me the shivers.
But the best discovery I made this year? Even better than learning that Grandma can still beat us at Boggle, in spite of the fact that she was 870 miles away from the board? (Impending weather systems conspired to keep her in New York, so we made do with a “Skype-Christmas.”)
Cleaning up after the frenzy that is Christmas morning – the breakfast dishes, the endless wrapping paper and those impossible little bits of candy cane that get stuck to the dog along with pine needles from the tree – is oh so much nicer with celebratory mimosas on board.
Yes, oh yes, that was the best discovery of them all. Cheers!
• Jennifer DuBose lives in Batavia with her husband, Todd, and their two children, Noah and Holly. Contact her at jenniferdubose@msn.com.
