Today we celebrate Epiphany, the day the Magi brought gifts to the infant Jesus. Tomorrow I strip our home of its Christmas decorations and start to get back to real life (where we try to stick to some semblance of a schedule). My own gift to Jesus is a renewed awareness of His presence in my life (after going through a rather long bout of spiritual dryness) and an attempt to spend more time spent in contemplative prayer (as in, “Hi, Lord. I love you. I’m offering up my daily duties to you. Talk to me. Let me know how I can best serve you and my family.”).
We certainly had a blessed Advent and Christmas. Our hearts, stomachs, and shelves were filled with joy, food, and toys from loved ones. I love the holidays, but I have to admit that being 26 weeks pregnant and schlepping kids to and fro from one family member’s house to another (often solo because of Dave’s erratic holiday schedule) has left me feeling a lot like this:
Ah, but now we begin what I refer to as detox – the process of safely removing sugar, the gimme, gimme, gimmes, sleep-fighting tendencies, etc. out of your child’s system. Put simply, it’s a time (exact duration depends on how long children were receiving narcotic-like hits in the form of constant attention from everyone from the friendly lady at the post office who gave them candy canes to the grandparents) when we get back to our routine, and the girls (and hopefully Mom) catch up on sleep, don’t nosh on cookies or truffles every single day (this goes for Mom, too), and have to relearn my sole purpose in life is not to be their Director of Recreation.
Kate —
I am SO with you on this!! With the older kids, it’s major detox from the constant electronic stimulation they were allowed over our two week break – new Wii games, new movies, etc.!! Back to reality and the electronic “ban” during the school week. Let the moaning and complaining begin…!!
Our detox is just from constant grandparent attention and staying up late! I think Taylor was held almost constantly for the past two weeks, which obviously isn’t an option in daily life. Good luck! :)
Cute Pic….
I was dreading today, as my husband has been off for the last couple weeks and we’ve been doing all the travelling to grandparents, opening presents, and eating all the good, I mean bad, stuff that any kids heart could desire. I was pleasantly surprised to find the kids seemed to enjoy a return to the usual routine. Of course, two of them are still sick, so the routine is not totally usual!
Happy New Year!
Janet