A Reminder to Be Grateful (for me)

I've been having some Scrooge-ish moments lately. Holiday gift-giving is always a little joy-tainted-with-stress situation for me. We can't afford to spend very much on anyone, but really want to give good gifts that people want. I also start to feel guilty about how generous our families (especially our parents) are with us. It seems so lopsided. Sigh.

Really though, much of the Christmas-stress is my own insanity with no basis in reality and I just need to relax and enjoy the season. . . so many things could be worse for us right now.

On the way home from gymnastics today a car turning left drove right out in front of us. There was a man shoveling snow on the sidewalk immediately on our right and oncoming traffic on the left. There was no place to go. I slammed on the brakes, honked the horn, and manage to swerve just enough to avoid both the car and the snow-shoveler, who may have needed to change his pants after the incident. How we made it through that moment with no one getting hit or hurt in anyway is completely beyond me. We were driving on a road where the speed limit is 45 mph. Due to a little traffic I don't think we were going quite that fast, but if you'd been a bystander watching the whole thing unfold, you would have been certain I was going to drive right into the woman's driver's side door and possibly kill her.

After a quick moment, everyone just seemed to get on with their business, but I had to pull over and take a mommy time out because I was sobbing with relief. That probably sounds mellow-dramatic, but it was that close. Harper was in the backseat asking why I was crying and telling me she wasn't scared of cars; which only made it worse because I can't imagine how scary it would have been for her if we had slammed into that car.

So. Deep breath.

The Christmas stuff? My dirty house? The laundry? Not that big a deal.