'Twas the day after Christmas, and all I felt was guilt

Christmas was great. The kids, of course, had so much fun. But I (Santa) had a little guilt when I started getting the gifts out Christmas Eve, there just weren't THAT many gifts. And I wasn't as excited about the gifts they got. They were good, just not that great. At least in my opinion.

Now, I know, I KNOW, I am the first to say that my kids have so much stuff, and I don't believe that kids should be PILED on with stuff, but I just felt a little bad that during these few precious years, when they are little, and so innocent and have complete faith in Santa, that the big Christmas morning gifts didn't meet my expectations.

Of course, my kids didn't seem to care, they were so happy with the gifts they had. They were so excited Santa ate their cookie and left a note. And they were excited to get on with the rest of the day which included big get-togethers at both sets of grandparents, which include all their aunts, uncles and cousins. AND, where they did get a lot more STUFF.

So they are extremely happy, but next year, I think I will try to have more small stuff. Not necessarily spend more money, but maybe buy more small gifts so they have more gifts to open. Maybe I won't be AS frugal too.

And, of course, I know my kids are SO lucky, they have SO much more than so many other kids, so this guilt is really completely ridiculous. And many people will probably laugh that I even feel that way.

And now I am on to my second mom guilt moment this holiday season. This is a guilt I felt today that was due to my often "too short" temper.

I got a tripod for Christmas. I was playing around with it this afternoon, just taking pictures of the Christmas tree and stuff like that. Christina came by and sat on the floor next to me playing with her new chalkboard.

She told me "don't look what I am writing until I tell you".

So I kept on focusing and adjusting the camera, and focusing and adjusting some more, and taking picture after picture. However, many times, just as I finally got the camera right and pushed the shutter, Christina would jump around and knock the tripod.

I wasn't really mad, I was just slightly annoyed. I know, bad mom dumb reason to be annoyed. I just told her "Christina please sit still and don't hit the tripod". And, after a couple more times, I was a little firmer "Christina! Please be careful!".

Of course, please remember, I am taking pictures of nothing of importance. These are NOT pictures that have any meaning whatsoever. Some of the pictures turned out pretty nice, but these are not pictures that I am planning on using, or saving, or printing. I am just playing around with my new "toy".


So, Christina finally says "OK mom, look!".

And this is what she was working on:


How awful did I feel? The worst. The absolute worst.

How many hugs and "Thank Yous" did I give her - yeah, I bet you can guess.

Big lesson, big guilt for mom today.

Hope you all had a great Christmas!!