(Image from: http://talesfromthedad.wordpress.com/2013/02/28/the-freakin-wiggles-austrailas-greatest-musical-export/)
No, not those Wiggles. Those are the creepy, insane wiggles that we thankfully managed to avoid completely in our early parenting years. There is always the threat that they may come to haunt us in our later parenting years so beware. But I digress.
It is mid-November which means that Christmas season has already descended upon us. If you've ever lived in the South you've probably had the joy of driving through love bugs. Christmas season is like that. It is annoying, it is everywhere, and while you should be celebrating the love you're really just cursing being inundated and bombarded with it and then feeling slightly guilty that you just aren't embracing the love, which makes you angrier and so on.
The boyos are 7 & almost 10 now. Thankfully, they still believe in Santa Claus. That's a plus and something we really do treasure. Unfortunately, what I shall now call "The Christmas Love Bugs" have descended. Well-meaning relatives who are already hounding us for lists and so on. You want to love them but you can't help but curse their jingle belled persistence.
As most parents are, we're trying to juggle the balance: find out what we want, what is important to us, how to instill those values onto our kids while shielding them from Christmas Love Bugs and general commercialization (would that be the Christmas Dragon??? Is that unfairly vilifying dragons??).
So today we had a talk about the wiggles. And no, not THOSE Wiggles. The wiggles that the season should fill you with. Here's what we came up with:
1) Thanksgiving is the meal that fills you up with warm food, fuzzy love feelings, and stocks your body with nutrients necessary to support the upcoming WIGGLES.
2) You know that feeling you get when you've thought of a really great gift idea for someone? And you're just so friggin' excited because you simply know what an absolutely awesome idea it is? Are you starting to get filled with giddiness? If so, then my friend, you have the WIGGLES.
Isn't that what gift giving should be about? The "EEEEE HEE HEE" excitement fueled wiggly deliciousness where it is so awesome and it is just killing you to keep it a secret because you can't wait to see their face? It is about the Wiggles.
And, yes, you can get the Wiggles knowing that someone is thinking about YOU just like that!!! THAT is definitely Wiggle inducing!!! Yes, the holiday season is absolutely about more than just gifts. It is about traditions, hopefully happy ones. And if you don't have happy ones, then you need to make some!!
For us it is about food: gingerbread cookies, sausage balls, Chex Mix, and the promise that Mommy will get candy canes to put in your hot cocoa. It is about driving around at night looking at all the lights while listening to Christmas music and singing along. It is about getting the tree from the same place we get the tree every year. Then decorating it. Then cursing when it falls over and invariably our (Mommy's) favorite ornaments break. It is about Mommy going a little insane with sparkly nail polish. And .. most importantly, it is about our annual (this will the 10th one!!) Christmas Eve Open House party where we invite friends and family to drop by most anytime and have a good time. ---- and then when Mommy and Daddy try to remember that staying up late having an alcohol induced good time isn't the wisest of ideas when the kids wake up at the crack of friggin' dawn.
It is about coming together on cold nights to find beauty and love and happiness and alcohol and treats.
That, my friends, is the Wiggles. It is about the Wiggles.
So .. if you start getting stressed, think about what fills you with wiggly-happiness. Embrace that. If your past traditions have left your with a sour taste, toss them out and start some new ones. Embrace it and be wiggly!!!
