So tonight was my son Patricks first band concert. He has been looking forward to it for the past week in a Patrick kind of way. Asking questions like, “Mom, are you going to go to the concert?” and “Can we go out to dinner before the concert to celebrate?” The 2 things he is most worried about in life. Whether or not we are going to make a big deal about his accomplishment and food. Not just any food, preferably the food that comes on a plate and is not served by yours truly. “Yes, Patrick I will be there and no sorry son it is left overs tonight.” That is not really what he had in mind but all was well and off we went.
Kids dressed and in the car an hour before show time. We arrived first. In our family we are either really early or flat out late. There is no in-between. We made it with 30 mins to spare, Christmas carols playing in the car the whole way. The kids filed out of the car and into the church as the show began. It was the perfect display of shortened Christmas carols performed beautifully by junior high students on instruments. Those concerts always put me in the spirit of what really matters around the holidays. They tap into my love for music and the pride I have when I see one of my kids making it. When they opened the concert they made a suggestion to still our hearts, put away the worries, concerns and todo lists and just be for 1 hour. It is funny how we have to be told but I was in. My past 5 days have consisted of cleaning, organizing, wrapping up work, picking up sick kids and preparing for Christmas vacation. All of it. It was good to just be for a moment.
All was smooth until Graces diaper malfunctioned and my husband had a wet leg. You would have thought there was acid running down his leg. He was sure to let me know the situation and less then happy with my slow response. I mean I was enjoying the trumpets. Anyway everything unraveled from there. Grace and I walked to the car. The boys followed with a “Can we go to dinner now?” and my husband with an interrogation on exactly how I handled the wet diaper.
I will let you in on a little secret we rarely all ride together in one car because 6 kids in a suburban is less than a good time. We prefer to arrive at a function without our faces all scrunched up from the stress of arguing all the way there. Tonight was different. Tonight we drove together, all 8 of us. We all returned home with headaches and faces too scrunched to make out. There were statements like, “straight to bed!” and “you owe him an apology” AND “you are at it you own ME an apology.” Yep – The real deal. Real life.
It is funny though. Tonight I am not carrying it with me. We are not perfect and our life is not even close to being perfect but it is ours. It is the way it is and although some improvements will help us all out in the end. I am just grateful we are all here. I am overly thankful that we are celebrating yet another Christmas together and we will soon ring in 2015 side by side. I will save the worry and frustration for later. Right now I plan to enjoy the peace of my house with 6 kids and one husband asleep upstairs. The thought makes my heart swell with pride. We are doing the best we can.
A little behind the scenes moments this week.
I spent the afternoon in the studio with Grace playing around with some Christmas ideas I had in my head. Its really beginning to feel a lot like Christmas…….and I am so very excited about 2015.
Graces Christmas dresses are from Measure. She is one of my favorites. Everything she puts together is magical.
Happy hump day friends! I hope your holidays are magical in a “your own” kind of way. OX Katie
