Real Talk: Christmas Letter

Last night in the hour between putting the kids to bed and going to bed myself, I lamented to Paul that yet again, advent is owning me. I didn’t fall into any time sucking traps (or joy bringing activities depending on your perspective) - sending holiday cards, making homemade gifts, or even cooking thanksgiving dinner. And like last year, we didn't even get a tree. And yet, this is the season where the true limits of my self-proclaimed “strong brain chemistry” are tested. 

A core sanity stealer this advent, which is a bit of the theme of 2022, is childhood illness. I’ve been up since 5 am this morning wondering if Hugo’s third round of illness in six weeks is covid or bronchitis. The silver lining of him being home more is our new bonding activity - watching marvel movies. He randomly clicked on “Love and Thunder” on his first sick day and since then we’ve been making our way down this list. 

When I used to have a healthy emotional range, the marvel movies were too scary for me. They continue to be too scary for Crosby. When Carmen is also home sick, Hugo and I start the movie when she starts napping and then she can usually join for the last half-an-hour or so. 

Hugo asks a lot of questions, “So they are brothers? But one of them is a bad guy?”. Carmen's commentary is reminiscent of the literal music video parodies.

The general consensus around children and screens is that it is better if they have an adult watching with them. So, I am going to go ahead and shine up my gold star on this one. We need some victories around here.