Bah, Humbug I Say!

After an epic day yesterday, the baby cried all night and took vengeance on his poor mother and I.

I think I even remember almost falling asleep standing up while rocking the baby during the dark hours.

Which meant rolling into Christmas morning tired as all hell.

And then summoning up the requisite holiday cheer.

And then spending the day alternating between elation for new toys and despondence when they don’t work exactly right. Or when your little brother slobbers on them. Or when your big brother takes them from you.

And so on and so forth.

My wife and I played leap-frog with naps today. A half hour here, 20 minutes there.

And yet at the end of the day, we are completely done.

Patience level at zero.

Getting short with the kids for not listening and brief with each other for accumulated frustrations throughout the day.

Leaving us here at the end of Christmas Day questioning our abilities as parents, spouses, brothers, sisters, sons and daughters.

Why do we feel this way?

How come the 10 victories seldom feel as good as the one loss hurts.?

How do we sit here at the end of day full of blessings and still question that the final accounting comes up positive?

And why on holidays do we sometimes simply trade one stress for another?

The holidays are supposed to be a time of joy and cheer and making merry.

But what about when they are hard sometimes?

Why then do we internalize even greater pressure to extract such joyfulness?

As I pondered the questions and longed for sleep, the answer hit me.

It’s putting results over process.

Stick to the process. The results will come.

Even when your kids act like brats on Christmas.

Bah, humbug I say.