Healthy Balance

      Thanksgiving was a wonderful day at our house. We were surrounded by friends and family and food. My husband fried a turkey for the first time, and though my traditional roasted turkey came in a far second choice to his fried turkey, I was grateful we didn't become a newspaper blurb statistic by catching our house on fire.

      As has been the case in years past, one of my favorite parts of the holiday came at 7:00am Friday morning, when I nestled into the couch with pie in one hand and the remote in the other. Once my children awoke,  I corralled them into my bedroom with a movie and closed the door while I watched a pay per view movie of my own. My husband was on a bike ride and because I had been looking forward to this time for days (literally), I knew that waiting for his return for my favorite holiday tradition to begin would just NOT DO. Each time the bedroom door opened and I heard little feet or little voices I would call, "Back in the bedroom until Mommy's movie is done." For a few moments I felt the usual maternal guilt permeating through the comfy blanket that covered me. But, I worked through it with a few more bites of pie, Sarah Jessica Parker and "the girls".  Life is all about a healthy balance.

    Because of my quality time with my couch and my pie, I was able to go through the rest of the day knowing that I had taken care of myself. A task that we mothers all too often forget. I figured maybe I would even be more relaxed about decorating the tree. I had visions of  letting the kids express their creativity by placing ornaments wherever they chose and my being satisfied with the outcome of their decorating, no matter how it manifested itself. 

     I was more relaxed about decorating. This year I waited patiently for my three wonderful kids to go outside and play before I carefully took the clumped together ornaments they had placed and balanced them throughout the beautiful, humble tree we all chose together.


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