Julia Sims: The perfectly imperfect Christmas

I am a mess. A 365-day a year mess. I'm the friend whose life seems to be held together with crazy glue and duct tape.

Christmas tends to highlight my shortcomings. For example, last week I was making butter cookies. I was even planning to use a new cookie gun my sister had sent me. I thought it was all so very Martha Stewart of me! That is until everything went south. The batter was really thick but, I pressed on with the mixer.

Next thing you know smoke was everywhere! I'd burned out the motor. I yelled for Will to open the door and the sad thing is he wasn't fazed by any of it. (He's apparently used to my misadventures)

And then, there's the decorating. If you're like me, you look at those magazines (or friends' Facebook pictures) and drool. Unfortunately, you'll never find those perfectly decorated trees, the halls decked with boughs of holly or the beautiful matching stockings hanging from the mantle in my house. We don't even have a fireplace. One of the stockings has a moth hole in it. Our wreath is about 50 years old and the musty smell makes you hold your nose when the front door swings open.

Even one of Will's classmates pointed out I need to up my Christmas game. Last week, I took pizza and cookies to a small lunch bunch group I meet with regularly at school. I thought it was a nice holiday thing to do. Then, one of the children said "Will's mom, why did you bring Halloween napkins? You do know it's Christmas, right?"

Well, we rolled with it because that's what you do.

Seriously, I had always hoped one day my Christmas would resemble one of those magazine spreads. I kept thinking it was just a matter of time. But, then, the other day, Will turned everything sideways with this: "Mama, my favorite holiday is Christmas. Do you know why?"

Of course, I figured he was going to talk about the presents or being out of school, but he surprised me when he stated "Because I get to be with my family."

Well, if you ask me, that's about as perfect as it gets.