– if your kids gave you a Christmas gift of which they are very proud… but you’re not sure what it is.  (See photo.)

– if for reasons that defy explanation you decided at 8 a.m. on Christmas Eve morning that Christmas would not be complete unless you made a batch of homemade roll-out-and-frost sugar cookies.

– if you asked God to stop time at approximately 11:45 a.m. on Christmas Eve morning so that you might finish your to-do list.

– if you were very close to having a complete come-apart at 2 p.m. on Christmas Eve because there was no way you were going to get the kids dressed and yourself through the shower and the dishes done and the rest of the gifts wrapped and the car loaded before you had to leave in an hour.

– if you persevered thanks to a level-headed husband.

– if you were the woman in a dress and heels and a baby in one arm dragging a two-panel gate out of the road on the way to church.

– if you were 45 minutes late for the candlelight Christmas Eve service.

– if you made your Grandma cry when she opened your present… happy tears.

– if you got home from the Christmas Eve party at Grandma’s house at 2 a.m. Christmas morning and the kids were up at 8 a.m. to open gifts.

– if your kids were so excited about the first gifts they opened on Christmas morning that they never got around to opening the rest of them… and now they’re hidden in your bedroom and you’re not sure what to do about it.

– if your baby has developed a real taste for wrapping paper.

– if the baby has been pooping out glitter.

– if you didn’t realize the Little Critters’ clothes could be removed when you bought them for your 2-year-old.

– if your bedroom has become the Christmas Staging Area and is full of empty boxes, dirty clothes, and everything else you had to hide when the first of the Christmas Dinner guests arrived and you were still wearing pajamas.

– if your niece received an iPod for Christmas that has a game on it which causes her to say things like, “We have to clean — company is coming!” and “Let’s make clownfish for supper!” and “We need better lighting in here!” and it’s hard for you to discern between what’s real and what’s not.

– if December 26 is all about eating leftovers, burning wrapping paper, feeding cows, and sorting through plunder at your house too.

© Tami Blake