The Christmas Letter?

Let me start by saying that I love Christmas letters.  I love reading about my friends' years, especially those that live far away.  It is fun to see how people condense a full year into a one sheet page of writing.  I have written a family Christmas letter every year since my husband and I got married so 11 letters so far.  We have always had big news to announce in our annual letter.  A new address (8 times), a new job (8 times between us), or a new baby (3 times).  But not this year.  We have no news.  So if I wrote a Christmas letter it would look something like this...

Dear Friends and Family,

Today I cleaned up cat poop from two different locations.  Changed diapers six times.  Fed kids three meals and two snacks of which they ate maybe half the food provided and none of the vegetables.  Exceeded my pediatrician recommended screen time by more than I care to admit. Had Hockey Boy (6) tell me that I never let him, fill in the blank.  Listened to my middle child (4), who wants to be called Yoshi from Mario Kart, tell me he hates me as he goes to his room for knocking apart the little one's train track that I spent 30 minutes building all over the dining room floor.  And was hit on more than one occasion by the Little One (2) because he did not like what I needed him to do, like put on shoes so we could pick up one of his brothers.  I ate leftover frozen pizza for dinner while feeding my kids dino nuggets and cold corn.  My husband who came home around 9:30 ate the leftover kids nuggets and whatever else he could find in the fridge.  I stayed up way too late watching useless television and playing computer games.  So now I will be tired and grumpy tomorrow.  

Merry Christmas!

This is my truth but really not something I want to share with the world.  Of course, I could write all the great accomplishments of the year, the big boys learning to read, Hockey Boy scoring his first goal, Yoshi going on a special trip with just Daddy, Little One walking and starting to talk.  The sweet moments where Yoshi runs over and hugs me for no reason or Little One holds tight and leans in just before I put him to bed.  Seeing Hockey Boy being so sweet to the kids at school.  But all these things while amazing and sustaining are just not where I am day to day right now.   So I will post my truth here and save my friends and family from the bitter letter in my head.  I will send the family picture we finally got of all five of us at Disneyland because I still love getting cards and don't want to risk getting dropped from someone's list.