My kids are grown ups. They are all partnered up and self-sufficient and happy and healthy and I love them to pieces.

Two years ago, after watching me heroically and miserably try to pull off the magical Christmas I thought they still yearned for, they all approached me gently and said, "We have a proposal about Christmas next year."

Now, I am not gonna' lie: I was a tad worried. "What more could I add," I thought? "I am already stuffing their massively sized stockings to overflow, buying each of them 4-5 gifts and wrapping them in beautiful white recyclable paper with pretty reusable bows. I am making monkey bread and mimosas Christmas morning, hosting extended family Christmas eve, etc etc etc."

Here is what they said: "We would enjoy Christmas more if everything was simplified. No stockings, except for you and Dad. We will fill them. No more multiple gifts for each of us. We will exchange names so you just have to buy for one (ONE!!) person. We will be in charge of Christmas eve dinner and the other nights we are home, let's just do take-out. What we really want is time with you and Dad. Time to drink coffee by the fire. To make special cocktails. To play games. To laugh and remember ridiculous stories from when we were young. Can you just drop most of the stuff you always do?"

You could have knocked me over with a feather!

At first, there was just a tinge of shame and sadness. "Was I not hearty enough to pull off a heroic, exhausting (for me) Christmas anymore? What kind of mom am I if I don't obliterate myself in December on behalf of those I love?"

I quickly got over that, however.

I accepted their proposal.

It was SO GREAT! I got to be with my kids and I mean I REALLY got to BE with them. I wasn't fretting. I wasn't buying someone a last minute gift because the packages weren't even. I wasn't breaking the bank and paying for it in January. All of us were well fed; no one went hungry. We sat by the fire. We played games. We ate and drank and laughed and remembered Christmases past where Santa bought WAY TOO MUCH and had to overstuff the stockings to make it all fit. We also laughed about the times I literally melted down on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day because I was beyond exhausted.

No more ...

That Christmas, we were simply together as a family.

We celebrated the birth of Christ.

It was enough.

It was (and still is) actually more than enough.

A truly simple Christmas.

This mom is so very grateful.