Picture Perfect... or not.

The holidays are my favorite. The whole holiday season. People seem happier, everyone excited to be off of work and spend time with family. Some families have cute matching pajamas and take the cutest Christmas morning picture. Some families just take perfect pictures capturing their Christmas traditions like building gingerbread houses or baking cookies. It always warms my heart to see them all over social media. Every year, I join in on the posting. Trying to take as many pictures as I can... hoping to get the cutest one. The adorable picture that will make everyone see how happy we all are.

I was so excited this year. More so than usual. We were doing well. We had bought gifts in advance and there was a big pile under the tree. I knew the kids would be so excited with everything we had picked out. I even made a short road trip to get my dad, so that he could stay with us for the week. We were going to have a great, relaxed Christmas. I had activities planned - Christmas movies every night, gingerbread house building, Christmas cookie baking... all sorts of stuff.

Well, this year, I didn't get that picture perfect moment. Not only did I not get it, I didn't even come close. We spent Christmas afternoon in Urgent Care with Kinsley (who had an ear infection and double pneumonia). She didn't even participate in Christmas morning... the morning I had been planning for months, excited for all of the gifts she was going to light up over (Caden too!). She was just too sick. It was heartbreaking. By far, my worst Christmas. Kinsley was sick 2 days before Christmas, so we didn't do any of the activities I had planned either. And then, to make things worse, I got sick. Then Kenny got sick. Then my dad got sick. So, as you can guess, our holiday week did not go at planned and honestly... kind of sucked.

Christmas night, seeing everyone's adorable pictures and happy families... it made me almost envious. I was so heartbroken that this year didn't go as planned. I was so upset that we didn't have as much fun as what I had pictured the weeks leading up to that week. And then I remembered something simple, but true: "Comparison is the thief of joy." I started to think of things differently. I began to feel grateful that Kinsley wasn't sick enough to be hospitalized, that the rest of us just had a bad cold, and grateful that, even though we were all sick (except lucky Caden), we were together. My mood on social media changed too. I went through and liked everything that I could, commenting well wishes.

"Comparison is the thief of joy" is something that doesn't just apply around the holidays. How many times do you catch yourself comparing your situation to others? It's natural. Or seems to be. It's also hard not to think "Uh... I wish my house was that clean or that nice?", "I wish my kids would cooperate for adorable family pictures like that", or "Wow... they do a lot of fun stuff... it must be nice." But a perfect picture does NOT equal a perfect person, family, house, or moment. Everyone struggles. Everyone fights battles that they don't talk about. So, I take comfort in knowing that we are all in this together and even when things don't go the way I had planned, to always find a way to be grateful.... there is ALWAYS a reason to be grateful. And I can find joy and happiness in my situations, even when there is struggle.

And that's how I plan to start this new year... grateful.