I write propped up in my bed on this festive morning feeling very unfestive. It’s my fourth day of staying isolated in my room with Covid (round 3). My husband is recovered. My son’s still sick. And the girls are either recovered or never caught it this time.
We are on the mend, but illness in our household and with our extended family has upended Christmas plans and delayed preparations. We are postponing our traditional “Christmas morning” with family. We cancelled travel plans. The tree isn’t decorated. We never sent the cards. Teacher gifts were never distributed. Packages were never taken to the post office.
I wailed and moaned about this on Instagram and I found myself in very good company.
Here’s a small sampling of the hundred of “Advent fails” that people shared on Instagram with me:
“I didn’t read the short and simple advent reflections I signed up for and paid for.”
“One kid’s gift is only half painted.”
“Burnt the Christmas cookies.”
“Failed to plan the food.”
“No family pics. No peppermint bark.”
“Forgot to plan for St. Nicholas Day.”
“Got rear ended, have to find a new car now. No cards, and our house is a disaster.”
“Fruit fly infestation. Had to put all homemade decor outside since they had dried fruit.”
“Opened the flour to bake Christmas cookies and found it had bugs in it.”
“Just remembered I have a Christmas tree in my car…from 3 weeks ago.”
“Bought actual Christmas cards to write and send. Haven’t opened the box.”
“Made 30 boxes of homemade fudge. Forgot to give it out at the end of the Christmas party.”
“Fell off St. Andrew’s Christmas novena again.”
“Haven’t wrapped a single present.”
“I never even put up the Advent wreath.”
“House is an absolute mess.”
“Cancelled our fight to CA before takeoff because we woke up sick.”
“Outdoor Christmas lights still sitting by the door in the box.”
“Forgot to pull out the Christmas books.”
“3 of the Advent candles snapped in half through mysterious circumstances.”
“St. Lucy Day, 3 hours making buns that didn’t rise and 4yo dropped on the ground.”
“Got sick, joined Prime just to get presents to travel on time. 2 hrs til I leave and 0 are here.”
Some are too private to share here: miscarriages, heartbreaks, infertility, grief, divorce. So much illness—from my highly scientific estimates from friends’ social media posts, everyone is ill. Whether it’s simply the mountain of things to do feeling too high to climb or particularly challenging or painful circumstances, you aren’t alone. Does this time of year every goes just as planned?
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Because one of the many things I did not accomplish this year was mailing out Christmas cards, I decided to put together a little digital Christmas card/family update as a thank you to the 100+ generous paid subscribers to this Substack. I appreciate your patronage so much and I’m honored that you would choose to support this newsletter when there are so many out there. I really love writing this Substack and you make it possible for me to take a little time out of each week to make it happen. So thank you. Thank you for being here for my thoughts on my favorite books, the creative life, motherhood, and my Catholic faith. To the founders of the feast!
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Without further ado here’s my family’s digital Christmas card/update:
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