Did I do Christmas wrong?
In 2018 people feel like it didn't happen if it wasn't shared on social media. Well if that's the case then Christmas never happened for me. I didn't share a single picture on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or Snapchat. In fact, I only took one video and put my phone away to enjoy the entire holiday with my friends and family. I was actually present while the kids were opening presents. I was present through dinner. I was present while playing games with the family.
I did take pictures through the holiday season. I got a picture of my kids with Santa.
I got a picture of my kids meeting Anna and Elsa at the Marshfield Rotary Winter Wonderland.
I've seen so many people sharing pictures of their kids in front of the Christmas tree with piles of presents and it makes me wonder how that makes families that can't afford Christmases like that feel. I appreciate the fact that families work hard to be able to give their kids a Christmas filled with presents and I am not shaming anyone for buying lots of gifts for their children. I just wonder if it's necessary to share that picture for the world to see?
I didn't take any pictures of my kids opening gifts, but I did take pictures of them enjoying experiences related to the holiday. These are the memories I truly want to keep. I probably won't remember a year from now who got my daughter the glittery LOL doll, but I will remember that my niece and my daughters were so excited to meet Anna and Elsa at the Marshfield Rotary Winter Wonderland that they were too nervous to ask them to pose for a picture and that my oldest daughter was so excited to see Santa that she was shaking and telling us that every plane flying overhead was Santa's sleigh.
It is wonderful to have a phone to be able to be connected and to have a camera within arms reach at all times, but it's also wonderful to experience the world without a device in your hand. This fact slapped me in the face when on Friday morning my oldest daughter climbed into my bed in the morning and asked to watch the end of a movie we had started the night before and I reached for my phone right after we turned the movie on and she said, "Mom, your phone again?" I had no reason to look at my phone. Sure I hadn't looked at it all night and there were several hours of Facebook posts and Instagram pictures I had missed from friends and family, but at that moment I realized what I was really missing was time with my 7 year old that I'll never get back.
So I put the phone away in another room through Christmas Eve and Christmas and you know what? I didn't miss anything.