This is the first Christmas that MY DAUGHTER gently unwrapped my most treasured ornaments and lovingly placed them on the tree. It was amazing to watch this rite of passage unfold before my eyes. As of this moment I am training my replacement and every day I work closer to unemployment.

As women we are so passionate about our homes. We are driven from a small age to desire our OWN home where we can do things OUR way. As Lucy began placing the ornaments on the tree and asking me about where to put them and how to do it, the seed was planted. I could see it in her eyes. She’s already thinking of what she wants HER tree to look like and how SHE would put the ornaments on the tree.

As parents we create the childhood we wanted. We change the things that bothered us, that we thought were wrong. We fool ourselves into thinking we’re making it better for our own kids, but in reality we’re just creating OUR dream childhood not theirs. And that Christmas tree is so symbolic. In my eyes it is the most beautiful and perfect Christmas tree. I love every ornament and every strand of garland. Lucy will grow and begin to see things about my most perfect Christmas tree that she doesn’t like, that she would do differently. She will sit in judgment of me and the job I have done as a parent. I pray that she is more forgiving of me than perhaps I have been with my own parents.