December 15

It is cold. Not cute winter cold. Not Hallmark snow globe cold. Negative temps, half a foot of snow on the ground, and the idea of leaving the house sends actual chills straight through my spine.

Today was an e-learning day for school, and my boss told me to stay home and work from the house. Don’t have to tell me twice. The coffee stayed hot. The slippers stayed on. Productivity happened without frostbite.

Amazon, on the other hand, is putting in overtime. The driver will probably memorize our driveway by the end of the week. Santa presents. Instructor presents. A few “from Mom and Dad” gifts that will absolutely be forgotten by February. Santa letters went in the mailbox yesterday, and the replies from santaclauswrites.com should be hitting our mailbox any day now. The girls are watching the mail like hawks.

Christmas cards are coming too. Yes, I’m late again. Shutterfly is doing its thing. We’re all crossing our fingers that USPS comes through. If you get ours sometime around New Year’s, just know the intent was there.

The calendar is thinning out as we crawl toward the end of 2025. Christmas programs. Lessons canceled because it’s simply too cold to safely function. Work Christmas potlucks, where we all quietly hope the kitchens involved are clean. Family time with people we actively discuss in therapy. Truly magical.

I’ll admit this part is hard. I miss my lesson kids and my rodeo kids more than I expect to every winter. The barn slows down. The arena gets quiet. Routines disappear. Winter is tough when your heart lives outside with horses and dirt and movement. The break is needed, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy.

And let’s not forget watching the bank account drain like someone pulled the plug in the bathtub. I really thought this would be the year of homemade, sentimental gifts. That version of me had great intentions. My mental bandwidth strongly disagreed. We pivoted. We survived.

The girls are doing well. Bonnie leaves a tornado wherever she goes. Cardboard scraps. Clothes. Schleich animals. Scissors. Drawings. She is a walking, talking hurricane, and honestly, it fits her perfectly.

Kelly has a boyfriend. A good one, shockingly. Manners. Respectful. Treats her well. I did not have “pleasantly surprised by an 11-year-old boy” on my bingo card, but here we are.

Loretta is still finding her place and herself this season. She wants Christmas to be tomorrow and is deeply offended that it is not. Every day is a countdown, and patience is not part of her skill set yet.

Rodeo is still whispering to us. We took a break for December, but Dan thinks he and Mike might rope next weekend. There’s talk of maybe sneaking in an Illinois Junior Rodeo between now and MYRA at the end of January. The pull never really goes away, even when it’s freezing.

Have I mentioned it’s cold?

If you’re feeling behind, overwhelmed, broke, missing your people, or just tired this week, you’re not alone. Leave a comment, send a message, or share how your December is really going. Let’s sit in the mess together and keep moving forward, one snow-covered day at a time.