Not so popular opinion: I love the holidays BUT I don’t love December. Decembers are especially tough for parents. I shouldn’t generalize that it’s only moms – because there are some dads rocking it, too. The weight of December is just a lot to handle sometimes. 

So many things to do in December. Buying presents. Organizing festivities. Wrapping presents. Holiday parties. School recitals. So. Many. Things.

Every year, we spend a slow evening at the beginning of the month decorating the tree as a family. It has become my favorite moment of the season.

It’s a few moments to slow down and immerse ourselves in the feeling of the season and get into the holiday spirit and remind us what it’s really all about. It is a tradition that we’ve built to kind of launch the season together, and it really brings us together as a family. We bust out our holiday jammies and melt even more together as a family. 

We go through the ornaments as we put them on the tree. Almost every ornament has a story.  The tree becomes like a collection of memories we can talk about and remember as we decorate. Some ornaments remind us of people that aren’t here anymore, and the ornaments represent them.

During the rest of the month of December, it can be easy to get distracted from the point of it all. With all the extra events to attend and organizing everything so that “everything is ready” for Christmas. So much of the month is looking forward to and getting ready for one day…

And then, before you know it, the month goes by, and the holiday season is over in a bit of a blur. And you wonder, where did the month go? What did we do again? So that evening, decorating the tree together is always a special memory of the season.

The flurry of the season reminds me of a message I sent a friend a few months ago. I was making a special video greeting for a Swedish friend, Nina. Another friend, who also lives in Sweden, was putting together a surprise video message for Nina’s baby shower. We all used to bowl together internationally. When I was preparing the video for her, I wanted to offer more of a thoughtful message, so I tried to think of an inspiring message that also related to her exciting new journey as a mother.

The first thing that came to me is this,  “the days are long, but the years are short.”

I never really understood that phrase until I had kids. 

I remember when the kids were babies and infants, and feeling like the days were really long. There was so much to do. And it always seemed like there were more “mother things” to do. At the same time, daily progress felt slow. As a new mother, I craved progress. The day they would start walking or talking, and it felt like life was moving forward. Some days I wondered, are they ever going to start talking to me? Are they ever going to walk? How long until they’ll do this or that? As a new mother, everything felt like forever. I just really remember feeling that everything took so long to start happening.

And I’m not too proud to admit that I felt that way. There were moments during the initial stages when I really thought everything was slow and difficult.

But then, suddenly I’m here. I am hanging ornaments this year with an 8-year-old and a 12-year-old… And I look back with the opposite perspective and think, “gosh, those years FLEW by!”

How did that happen?

It’s mind-boggling how quickly more than a decade can go by. And before we know it, we’re looking back on those years, reminiscing its many moments.

I think that’s why it’s so important to savor those moments when you can. Like, I mean, REALLY savor them.

I know it may seem cliche to say it, but it’s true that you never get this day back. You will never get this moment back. So, how are you spending your moments, and are you building enough moments into your days so that you can savor them looking back?

With every year that goes by, and as I watch my kids grow, I’m realizing it more and more. Time is so precious. It’s something you can’t hold onto, and it slips through your fingers so quickly. Even when there are moments when we think things are going too slow. I don’t wish any of those slow moments away, and I actually crave them now. I don’t want to look back and regret not having them or holding onto them. 

This applies to life and to everyone – not just mothers or parents.

I encourage you to embrace and appreciate the slower moments this season and even go out of your way to create them. While we’re in the holiday season now, it’ll soon be a new year. And every season of life goes by oh so quickly…

What I wish for you – is that you savor every moment.