It has become a personal tradition. My own “end of the season” clearance. Much like my smartphone alerts me when its storage is almost full and I must delete some files to ease use, my own brain feels the need to move some information out of my head and onto the page. So I make a list of thoughts and moments I want to remember from that Christmas season, and I put them down here. I enjoy reading back over the memories in the years to come, and the additional space I gain in my brain for new storage is also much appreciated.

I’ve downloaded my thoughts and the rendering of the list for this year is complete. Enjoy!

15 Things I Learned from Christmas Season 2015

 

15. Any day you can wear your slippers the entire day, even to a friend’s house and back, is a good day.

 

14. My son can make a clock out of potatoes and wires, control my computer mouse with some foil and wires, and make his mother feel stupid all in one afternoon.

13. All chapstick is not created equal.

 

12. Pictionary is a challenging game, and even more so when someone (I won’t name any names) accidently buys you the Italian version of the game. My parents (I won’t name any names) claim it’s not what they ordered off the internet.

 

11. The amount of retail emails containing coupons and shopping incentives I received during the month of December = approximately 1,094,469,395. The number of email coupons and shopping incentives I actually used during the month of December = 2.

 

10. When your daughters go by the “open it, wear it” gift motto, your Christmas morning may begin to resemble the swimming suit portion of the Miss America pageant when suddenly they are both donning only a bathing suit and heeled boots.

 

9. Even though a child runs his mittened hand over a moist railing in the flamingo habitat at a public zoo and then proceeds to suck the said moisture out of his mitten doesn’t necessarily mean this child while become ill. However, this same statement cannot be said of any mother who happens to witness this moment.

 

8. “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” is an extremely confusing song to a five-year-old.

 

7. The number of times my husband has said, “If no one is in the basement, then someone needs to run down there and turn the lights off” > The number of times I’ve heard “White Christmas” on the radio.

 

6. Shaking the strand of lights violently doesn’t necessarily help it to function properly. It does however make you feel better.

 

5. Gift giving is easy when it comes to fifth grade boys.

 

4. The hand soap called “Winter Frost” by Dial smells exactly like my husband’s Speed Stick deodorant.

 

3. If you give first graders free reign of the icing and sprinkles while leading the “decorate a sugar cookie” station at a party, you will be taken seriously. Then you send the kids home to their parents.

 

2. It is incredibly difficult to motivate yourself to do anything productive when it requires first kicking two children dressed in footie pajamas off of your lap.

 

1. Hearing your children sing in the Christmas Children’s Choir at church and watching them express the joy and hope of the season brings tears to your eyes and warmth to your heart.