Best Laid Plans

Aaaahhhh....the best laid plans never cease to fall apart, eh? The wonderful thing is that even when those plans go to pieces, things still seem to come together in special ways, especially around the holidays.

We've had some rough Christmases in the seven years we've been married. Our first Christmas together was spent with my family (all of these "Christmases" should be looked at as late-Christmas-day-after-church-and-travel). They held off supper for us to arrive, so we got done opening presents around 11 p.m. Not so brilliant an idea, but it was sweet and special. Unfortunately, my Grandma had an accident that year. She ended up being run over on her leg by a very large, very heavy pickup. It could have been much worse, but it rather tarnished the holiday that year, for her especially, I think!

Christmas 2003 was great except for the pit stop we had to make halfway on our twelve hour trip to dispose of the blankets our new kitty had "tinkled" all over. We were very new pet owners at the time. Dietrich meowed most of the twelve hours, too. Not the "plan" but good memories!

Christmas 2004 found us three months pregnant stranded in a gas station (back then they still allowed smoking, too...pleasant) just about halfway to my family's Christmas dinner. Grandma graciously suggested waiting it on us again, but that plan was vetoed by most of the rest of the family, including us. My Dad and uncle headed out to rescue us and our broken down car. We loaded the car on Uncle Bill's flatbed trailer at 8:30 p.m. and arrived at our destination at around 2:30 a.m. Christmas dinner that year was a cheddar-dog for Mr. T, a pizza for me (cooked specially for me because the lady felt so bad for us), and Reese's ice cream pies for dessert. Yum. Let me tell you. That was the year we found out our dog and cat could feasibly ride in the same kennel. Out of necessity, Mr. T shoved Hubert in his kennel, then took Dietrich (the cat), opened the kennel door, and said "Hubert, you know Dietrich. Dietrich, you remember Hubert." It actually worked. As ridiculous as being stranded in a gas station, three months pregnant, still a bit nauseous, and bored out of your mind playing cards all day is, it really drove home the true point of the holiday. So often we start thinking that the "real meaning of Christmas" is being with family to celebrate and love each other. That's an incredibly awesome by-product of the real meaning in my mind. The real point is to celebrate the birth of Jesus, no matter who we are with or where we are at. I suppose maybe soldiers deployed in the far reaches of the world know this the best. The ability to celebrate with our families in loving environments is simply a by-product of Christ's love for us. As unpleasant as Christmas 2004 was, I'm thankful for the lessons it taught me. I'm also hopeful to never repeat it....

Christmas 2005. Oof. Ouch. That one turned out painfully different from what was "planned". Christmas 2006 our poor kitty Dietrich got sick and died Christmas Day.

Christmas 2007 and 2008 were quieter, thank goodness. Now, we are at Christmas Eve 2009 and are looking at a possible plan-changing snow storm headed our direction. We're still hopeful to avoid it, but the meteorologists aren't giving us much to go on.

All day we debated about which church service to attend. The girls didn't nap as "planned", so we didn't go to Mr. T's service as "planned". The girls and I made it out of the house 13 minutes before the 6 p.m. service. Miss Mouse lost a shoe in the driveway as I carried her to the car. I forgot my jacket. Baby Mouse was deliriously tired but couldn't nap. Miss Mouse lost another shoe in the parking lot at church. I grabbed one Mouse under each arm and headed for the door; thankfully a nice man opened the outside doors for us. I get a lot of pitied looks because I look like a struggling single mom. I'm always glad when people do nice things for me because it tells me that is how they would treat a real struggling single mom. We got situated with Daddy in a pew in the front, and I realized I had also forgotten the diaper bag. We made it through the service together, though. Just not as "planned"! It's hard to say where we'll be tomorrow - where we "plan" to be or somewhere else doing something un"planned"!

Earlier today Miss Mouse and I hung a large sheet of paper on her wall where Santa was supposed to paint the moon. While Miss Mouse was playing with her Christmas Eve dinner (she didn't like it, I guess....), Mr. T painted the moon. There was a bit of miscommunication, though, at that point. I thought we were going downstairs to open presents and then that her room was fine for her to enter - that was my "plan". Well, we got upstairs from opening a couple presents, and, as I was getting ready to shower for church, Miss Mouse came running full speed out of her room yelling "Santa was here! He painted my moon!!!" It seems that being a mommy has made me a quicker thinker, so I got excited with her and went to check it out. Sure enough. Mr. T had left the paper off for the moon to dry....I guess he "planned" for the room to be off limits for a longer period of time than I had understood. Oops. I told Miss Mouse that Santa thought she was such a good girl he had to visit our house first. She'll be excited to see that he left some paint under the tree in the morning for the stars that she wants....Oops! Like I said, the best laid "plans"....

We hope your plans and your un"plans" work together to help you celebrate the birth of the baby Jesus the Christ in special, enjoyable ways! Merry Christmas!