Rookie Mama: We’ll take a cup o’ kindness yet and all the peanut brittle

By Michelle Cote
The Rookie Mama

For all the joy and cheer and merriment that comes with the rise of the holiday season as it peaks toward December’s end, there are little moments that catch me pensive, nostalgic.

As a mom, I can’t be the only one feeling these whirlwind feels during winter’s rapid rise to yuletide shenanigans.

Christmastime shines a star-of-wonder sized spotlight on this true passage of time marked by traditions of old – and some very, very old – that stand in stark contrast to what doesn’t – and 
can’t – remain still (or still, still, still, as the old Christmas choral tune suggests).

Each year, I pull out my hidden trove of vintage-style Santa wrapping paper in anticipation of preparing for that magical work in which many of us parents participate each year.

I’ve had several of these rolls for many years, purchased at one of my many day-after-Christmas sprees at our local surplus and salvage store. At 17¢ a roll, I was on a roll, and despite my appreciation for all things minimalist, I don’t apply this mindset to two things – garden seedlings and Christmas wrapping paper.

I can never have enough – But I digress.

This past year, I snuck in little moments to wrap when I could, and as one of my favorite vintage 
Noel rolls of paper unrolled to its vey last scrap, a bit of sadness washed over me.

That paper had lasted me a few years and embraced many a gift as I often fought with Scotch tape and tidy creases and many a hot ol’ mess.

As I was marking up my kiddos’ names in fancy North Pole-ian script, these gifts were marking passage of time. Same wrap, different contents representing the boys’ evolving interests through the years.

When I first began writing this column, I reflected on my first baby’s first Christmas. That little dude is now 14 years old, and we’ve got three others in tow – four different flavors who share a love for laughing all the way.

Alas, the passage of time.

It’s in the rare, quiet moments that I breathe in this realization that regardless of holiday traditions, wrapping paper, dishes put forth, the boys are gonna grow up.

I can wrap many a gift, but I can’t wrap my mind around just how quickly they’ve been sprouting up before our eyes.

Perhaps that strange time warp between Christmas and New Year’s when everyone seems to forget what day it is as they assemble gifts and eat leftover peanut brittle in their pajamas is a needed break for parents as well as the kiddos.

We need that decompression and time for reflection as much as they need time to test out their new Hot Wheels and Lego sets.

We need time for deep breaths and dust – and tissue paper – to settle as the little ones continue on excitedly, completely unaware that once we box up Christmas magic and decorations and store away in the basement, these won’t come out again until everyone is one year older.

Time marches on.

These reflective, hibernatory moments are truly poignant as we high five our partners and prepare to carry on into a new year. After all, Easter decorations are lining up store shelves – Go look and see, if you don’t believe me.

But in the meantime, our crew started up a new tradition last year which we certainly did not invent and hope you’ll try, too.

An empty jar sits on a counter each January by a small notepad, and each time a memorable moment takes place – be it sentimental, funny, or something in between – one of us jots down the memory and folds it up in the jar. At the end of the year, we’ll open up the notes and read them aloud, reflecting on small memories we may have otherwise forgotten.

Call it a modern-day Auld Lang Syne if you will, filled to the brink of a cup of kindness yet we share to button up the year gone by.

So cheers to 2026 and enjoy your Hot Wheels.

Don’t forget to pick up your holiday wrap for next year at clearance prices.

And enjoy the moments intentionally all year through with loved ones.

Glad tidings, readers!

– Michelle Cote lives in southern Maine with her husband and four sons, and enjoys camping, distance running, biking, gardening, road trips to new regions, arts and crafts, soccer, and singing to musical showtunes – often several or more at the same time!