“Falling” Into Christmas – Step 10 – Daily Accountability

My daughter called and related the following experience to me. She said she could call it, “Wild Boys on the Loose,” “Irresponsible Mothers,” “Christmas Tree Festival Gone Bad,” or “So There I Was…” but her first thought after it happened, after everyone in an auditorium full of Christmas Tree Charity Cheer was staring at her and her children, was “Here’s Something For Mom To Blog About.”

Quoting my daughter…“Sometimes I think the most constant thought in the mind of a little boy is, "What should I do next to drive my mother crazy? Well today my children and I went with some friends and their children to a charity event where decorated, donated Christmas trees are on display. They remain on exhibit for several days. Each tree is sold to the highest bidder and the money goes to charity. Things were going great in the beginning. There was a band playing. The children had a great time dancing to the music. We walked up and down all the rows of trees. I was pretty impressed at how good the kids were about not touching things.”

“We decided the Princess Tree was the perfect opportunity to take a picture of all our little girls. We lined all our princesses up in front of the Disney creation. Then one of the moms suggested we take a picture of all the little boys in front of one of the sets of three twenty foot, attached, wooden, lighted trees that stood in multiple places in the hall as decoration for the festival. While our attention was focused on the girls the little boys started crawling in between the wooden trees. We got them to stop, line up, and smile for the camera. My friend turned around to tell me she got a very cute picture of my son, TJ. I looked up just in time to see that the boys had resumed their play near the wooden trees. I was about to step in and break up the nonsense when catastrophe struck! Too late! One of the little fellows pushed another one, who fell against the three wooden trees. Suddenly the trees began to fall down right before my eyes. I was amazed by the number of thoughts I could have in the 5 seconds it took me to get over to the trees. The whole thing felt like it was in slow motion. My first thought was, “Those trees really aren't going to fall are they?” I pushed my friend aside and we both ran toward the disaster in progress. I thought about running behind the scene. I’m glad I rethought! The three wooden twenty-foot trees would have squished me. In the end all we could really do was watch them fall.”

“I stood there shocked over what had transpired, with complete embarrassment as the crowds turned and looked on, but feeling much gratitude that no one had been hurt and that there had been no domino effect on the other trees in the building.

Finally I addressed my two-year-old son. “TJ tell me what happened.”
“I pushed Mowoni ( Moroni ), Mowoni pushed the twees (trees), and the twees fall down.”

I don’t know what it is about the Thanksgiving/Christmas Season, but I seem to have more than average opportunity to practice Step 10, which is to, “Continue to take personal inventory and when you are wrong promptly admit it.” Maybe it has something to do with high expectations, too little money, long to-do lists, hurry hurry, and more social gatherings than my calendar can handle. My daughter’s experience brought to my mind the very obvious nature of most of my own wrong doings. Like crashing twenty-foot Christmas trees, my daily errors are not usually hidden out of sight or wrapped in “whose to blame” confusion. This season I want to stay ahead of the game and be like TJ. When “the twees falls down” my confession should be immediate, simple, honest, and without excuse.

By Nannette W.
Posted Friday, November 28, 2008

Copyright 2008 by Nannette W. All right reserved.
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