Hi Moms - Happy New Year! I’m so sorry it’s been so long since I’ve blogged. I didn’t plan on taking a break - it just sort of happened that the flurry of activity before Christmas put blogging on the very back burner. As you know, being Santa is hard work!

Along those lines, I’d like to take this opportunity to tell you that I KNOW and APPRECIATE all that you did to make Christmas so special for your family. I know that you baked cookies, made a gingerbread house, ordered, addressed, and mailed the Christmas cards (after you took the kids’ picture yourself or endured the pain of a portrait studio). I know that you got out all the decorations (some of you even dragged them down from the attic yourself), decorated the house and the tree, and bugged your husband to string the lights outside. I know that you thought about the perfect gifts for months, helped the kids write their Santa lists, researched the best prices, stood in long lines (some of you at 5:30 am on Black Friday - still can‘t believe I did that), and bought the wrapping paper. You bought teacher gifts, mail carrier gifts, bus driver gifts, babysitter gifts, and gifts for needy children that you don’t even know.

I know you took the kids to see Santa, went to the kids‘ Christmas parties at school, and bought the kids new Christmas outfits because nothing from last year fit them. You hosted family and friends, making appetizers, dinners, desserts, and cocktails. You played Christmas music, sang carols, and made sure the kids saw all the essential Christmas classics on TV. You stayed up very late on Christmas Eve and were woken very early on Christmas morning. And if you’re like me, all of the above was worth it the second you saw your kids faces as they darted down the stairs and discovered the magic.

I know ALL of this and I am in awe of us moms and all that we are able to accomplish during the holidays. It’s funny: the world holds Santa in the highest esteem. We marvel at his special talents of knowing each child’s interests and finding the perfect gifts. We are in awe that he’s able to do so much on Christmas night. We are amazed at his generosity, kindness, and spirit of giving. Yet we moms are Santa each year. WE are all of these things to our families. WE are the magic.

So, even when our husbands ask us why we’re so “spent” (as one of my friend’s husbands did), just know that I and every other mom in the world knows EXACTLY why you’re so spent. We do all the work of Santa and much, much more! And afterwards we carry on with our lives without missing a beat, while Santa gets to go home and relax the rest of the year while Mrs. Claus serves him homemade cookies by the fireJ