Why I won't "bring the holidays down a notch"...

This past week we celebrated St. Patrick's Day at our house.  Last year the kids woke up to find that a sneaky leprechaun had dyed our milk green and left a box of Lucky Charms cereal.  This year "said leprechaun" forgot to grab the cereal, but he did still dye our milk green and even turned the water in our toilet green, too!  The kids were thrilled and giddy and talked all day about how fun it was.  I would over hear them in the back bedroom talking about all the possibilities of how he pulled this off and what he used to turn the milk green.  I giggled to myself as Ella (who never has the courage to drink the green milk) questioned Noah over the taste of the milk trying to see if there were any other special qualities to it.  Noah just shrugged and told her "I don't know, but it sure is delicious!!"

There's a new article that I first noticed going around last year and then it showed up again this year as well.  You can read it yourself here, but it's basically a mom's plea for other mom's (and teachers) to "bring the holidays down a notch."  The article is great and has a ton of really funny points!  (My personal favorite being about needing to send a "whole freaking goody bag" for Valentine's Day), but while I can laugh and sympathize with the tired mom who wrote it, I have to say that I personally take a different stand.

I'm "that" mom.  And honestly, my husband is "that" dad, too.  I'm the one who runs around two days before Christmas hunting for a Barbie's Dream House because at the last second I decided I wanted to blow my daughter's mind.  My wonderful husband and I laughed until we cried for hours while we tried to put the dumb thing together.  Wondering the whole time why we even went and got it.  Just the two of us playing "Santa" with only our family Elf, Marvelette watching.  When Ella lost her first tooth this Winter, we waiting anxiously to put out the glittery $1 coins that we had carefully selected as our "Tooth Fairy" pay.  I make heart shaped pancakes on Valentine's Day and cook their favorite meals on their Birthdays.  I've already begun plans for a lead up to Easter to teach my kids about the kind of man Jesus was and celebrate what he's done for them on the cross.  Some years I go ALL out and others it's just a small treat.  I don't always do these things "Pinterest worthy" or to publish all over my Instagram.  I do them because I get an indescribable amount of JOY from them.  There's such a tiny span of life that I get to spend being a mommy to little ones whose eyes light up at my silly gimmicks.  The fun that we're having at the Strickland house is so priceless.  And so fleeting.  I wish I could just scoop up that sweet feeling and bottle it up to save forever.  Or freeze their happy faces in my head.  It's so worth the 10 minutes it takes to dye the milk and water green or the two minutes to move the silly elf.

I know this isn't the case for everyone.  We all parent differently and love our kids in our own ways.  Doing one thing or not doing something doesn't make any one person better than the next.  I'm so grateful for that truth since there are lots of things I don't do well.  But I'm kind of great at being a mom. And my husband is pretty great at being a dad, too.  It doesn't come easy.  It's something we work hard at each and every day.  And these little holidays are our reward.  It's the days we get to collect our payments for working so hard.  All paid out in giggles and wonder and whispers overheard as our kids talk about the leprechaun that came.  It leaves our hearts smiling and praying that this feeling never leaves....even if we know one day it will.  Yep.....probably not bringing the holidays down a notch anytime soon!!