Wishing you wonder and joy

I am a procrastinator. But usually there is a method to the mayhem. My brain seems to be programmed to know exactly when I need to buckle up and stop walking the thin line between just-on-time and overdue. It’s a game I play with myself. I suppose that getting things done in the nick of time gives me some type of crazy adrenaline rush.

This year I did not even have the choice to procrastinate and do things at my own pace. I was forced to leave everything until the last minute. The past couple of days have been a blur of shopping, cleaning, wrapping and baking. Until yesterday our office/playroom looked like this.

Not pretty, I know, but it looks much better today. All I can say is I am so thankful for online shopping because if I had to trudge through the stores with the rest of humanity, most people would still be without a gift. With the obligatory shopping taken care of and after a marathon of wrapping, it was time for some baking with the Mischief Maker. I think it was while my hands were sticky with cookie dough and I was busy dunking cookies alternately in powdered cinnamon and icing sugar that the realization hit me that this simple act of making chocolate crinkle cookies with my favourite chatter-box was making my heart burst with joy.

In the hectic pace of last-minute chores I found comfort in the knowledge that I finally had time to indulge in family-time and in making memories. And as I lined the rather imperfectly shaped cookies on the baking sheet, I smiled broadly in the knowledge that I had stumbled onto a serendipitous moment that no amount of chaos outside it will ever erase.

On a day when all the ‘To Do’ lists did not seem to be getting any shorter, I can truly say that none of that matters; that we take too much upon ourselves and try to achieve perfection in a very imperfect world; that we worry ourselves silly because our tree is crooked and, horror of horrors, we completely forgot to vacuum the carpets.

But none of that matters. It never should have mattered anyway and I’ve made a promise to myself that it never will again. Christmas is about joy. It is about wonder. And it is what I wish for all of you. Wonder and Joy. The rest is just tinsel on the crooked Christmas tree.

For those of you who asked what I was studying, well, it’s rather complicated but you can find a very brief summary here.

Wishing you and your loved ones a very happy and blessed Christmas!