I’m a “yes” person. I always have been. It eats me up to think that I’ve hurt a person’s feelings or done wrong. I find happiness in making others happy, and I do my best at being a professional people pleaser and over thinker. Obviously that’s not always the healthiest way to live – I’m nowhere near perfect and I don’t always get it right, but I really do try to please everyone.
Today I drove 4 hours to my hometown with two babies in tow. My husband is out of town, so it was just us. The following days will be full of saying “yes.” I’ll shuffle the kids from house to house. I’ll try to please everyone, make sure we see everyone. I’ll put a lot of miles on my car and get very few minutes of rest over the next several days.
One trip for Thanksgiving down. Repeat for Christmas in one month.
However, the places I’ll take my two babies are places that I’ve gone every year for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Since I was a little girl, I’ve basically had the same schedule for the holidays … now I just get to do it all with two littles attached to me.
When we head back to our house and my husband is home from work, we’ll owe his family in Jennings a day of visiting, too. Since we live our life according to his work schedule, we plan to alternate years of which family gets us for each holiday. Added family comes with marriage and it’s the only change in my constant “holiday hustle” that I knew all of my life before him.
With my family or with my husband’s, OUR family will be busy regardless of logistics. I will say yes. I want to say yes. I want the hustle and bustle, the chaos of rushing, the pressure of cooking the perfect dish. I want the crowded kitchen, the catching up, the love.
I want to say yes, because one day, I hope that our babies will make us their priority. I hope they will say “yes” to coming home to us. “Yes” to bringing dishes to add to our table. “Yes” to bowing their heads at our table, and listing the years of the hustle and bustle of the holidays as one of their blessings.
I say “yes” to all of my busy, crammed, chaotic traditions – and I pray that I’m teaching our children to be grateful that we have so many houses and people to visit. I say “yes” right now, because I hope to be on the receiving end one day. And I hope they love saying “yes” as much as I do.
