{ Connected Christmas } Mama Missy

This Christmas we are spreading the message of connection over perfection! We are chatting with everyday mamas with a little interview about Christmas, Joy, Struggle and tradition!

So today is the first one and we are leading with our Missy…. Here is her interview and experiences….

Hi! I’m Missy- Mama to my Wild {B} 2.75 years old boy and senior dog Tika- We live among some tall trees a stone’s throw from Winnipeg. We also enjoy spending time at our ‘cozy cabin’ and plan to spend the holiday there as it is close to our family and full of outdoors winter fun. This is my holiday interview:

Please tell us about a favorite holiday tradition, including how it came to be.

While I am HUGE on families having their OWN holiday traditions, I am very mindful that my “new little family of 3” is just setting in to our own traditions. The last 2 Christmas’s have been a bit of a struggle and while we did all the things like a tree and stockings it doesn’t feel like we have our OWN traditions yet- this is where we are headed for this year! As a kid, my Mama was the Queen of traditions! I have big shoes to fill! One that I LOVED was having butter tarts after the school concert- it was like the THING. Another I LOVED was on Christmas Eve after church we would drive around in the old van looking at Christmas lights, most times the van would fog right up, but I remember lots of laughs and good times, including when dad always had to pull around the front of our house as the last stop to look at our own lights!

What is your favorite holiday memory?

Last Christmas waking up at the cabin- the cozy jammies and seeing Wild {B}’s delight! I look forward to more of this- as a kid- weirdly- getting a Barbie pool LOL- and then one Christmas as a teenager, I remember we had no snow and I vividly remember standing outside with my Grandpa on the front steps taking it all in.

What is the best present you have either given or received? What made it special?

I have 2 fav gifts I have given and one received. When my nephew was 2 and just learning everyone’s names in our family, I made his gift by taking pictures of all of our family and his favorite things. I then put them on magnet paper and cut them out. He then had a magnet board of all of us (this was pre-kids for me LOL). The second is a book I had made for Wild {B} for his 1st Christmas- it was a picture book of all of our family with their names! My favorite gift received was a rock My love gifted me on my 1st Mother’s Day. It is a soap stone heart that has the word ‘Courage” scribed into it. He told me it took courage to become a Mama and he wanted to honor that ** mush alert** and like brownie points for 42 years I guess LOL.

Please share what you find a challenge or a struggle over the holidays.

I struggle at the holidays. I struggle with all of it. I love “perfect” and I’m recovering from this. In this striving for perfection and doing it all, I burn myself out and lose my way, and this is so far from what my heart wants. I get grumpy and short because I am tired. I want to lead with love this year…I am WAY more mindful of this and am trying to reduce my load this holiday season, less is more.

Another struggle for me at the holiday season is that it triggers me, it triggers me, because in 2015 the Christmas season was the peak of my Post-Partum Depression. This was a scary and rough time for me and my biggest fear was missing my son’s 1st Christmas. While I feel so much more healthy and alive now, this time of year still gives me memories of that time of struggle and the sadness that lived there.

Please share any tips, tricks, or advice you have for other mamas, related to the holidays.

Less is more- yep in everything. The less ya buy, the less you have to wrap and haul and clean up

SANTA SAC- legit- that’s my tradition- put all the Santa gifts in the big old’ cute bag
every year! Save on the wrap and the time and the clean up

Treat yourself- be kind to yourself this holiday season! I am totally LOVING holiday movie & peppermint everthing!!

If it goes undone, no one will notice, take the time to watch that Christmas movie rather than working to exhaustion!

Pinterest LIES- That’s all!

Take care this holiday season Mamas! We cannot wait to share more Mama stories with ya!

XO Missy