christmas priorities.......

It has been a stressful week, financially and emotionally. One of my best friends in the world is having a baby and I am throwing her a shower tomorrow night! I wanted everything to be perfect, Mark took 3 of the kids with him on errands, and (with Owen sleeping in his room) I could get a head start with cleaning and decorating for Christmas and Ruth's baby shower.

I actually got more accomplished in those 2 hours, than I had the entire week!! I was feeling very liberated and in-control, The house was looking pretty and the Christmas tree was neatly decorated. I was very pleased with myself.

Then Mark returned home with the kids, and quickly the boys headed into the front room. I was hoping they would be excited with the decorated tree, but instead they seemed disappointed that it had been done without them. In an attempt to compromise, I told them they could put a few (left over) ornaments on the tree. I walked away to check on dinner, at this time Owen had ripped a decorative paper off the shelf, and Kyle and Brody were "decorating the tree kid-style" Milo (the dog) was chewing up one of the ornaments, I began trying to "fix" the decorations on the tree, and I blurted out to Mark... "see I can't get anything done when they are here!!"
Immediately Kyle ran off to his room. I went in after him and asked him what was wrong. He told me I had hurt his feelings, My heart felt like it was going to brake, I didn't mean what I had said, and I had completely missed the point of Christmas. I was truly sorry to the point of tears, I asked kyle to forgive me. I learned an important lesson, the most important thing in my life are my precious children, that Heavenly Father trusted to me. Their little feelings matter!! All of a sudden, I didn't care about anything else, I didnt care if my house looked pretty, or if the dinner got burned, or if I was going to throw the most perfect baby shower, The only thing that I care about is that my children are happy, and feel loved and safe.

I went back into the front room and took off several decorations, and let the boys put them on however they would like! I am going to leave it just the way they did it as a reminder to myself to remember to keep my priorities straight.


I learned an important lesson today, taught by my sweet little boy.