What do you want for Christmas?

With Black Friday in two days, I’ve been working on my shopping list for what I should get for the kids, my parents, and in laws. This task seems daunting every year, because I stress about finding the “perfect” gift at the best price for the people I care about. I am personally at a stage in my life where objects aren’t really what I want. Of course I would appreciate some new clothes and I do have my eye on a cute pair of toms, but really I would like to have more adventures.

A little over a month ago, my husband and I went zip cording for my 30^th birthday to conquer my fear of heights. It was great and completely out of character for me. Over the past year, I’ve been working on myself; trying to change who I am, overcome the things and fears see as my negative qualities, become more involved in church, try to forgive people who have offended or hurt me, let new people in, and step out the box I’ve created for myself.

I don’t really know what I want to experience next, a group of my friends have discussed skydiving. Let’s see if that really happens, but after riding down the 280 foot-long zipcord flying past trees going 45MPH, I think it’s possible for me to consider or maybe rolling away in a Zorb.

I like that I feel anything is possible. That I’m not just a mom, step-mom, and wife; but that I can be an adventure seeker, someone who wants to do fun things with my husband and friends; something we used to do before we had our daughter. We used to go ocean kayaking, swimming with turtles, and canoeing; seems like a life time ago, but I am ready to show Maddie that Mom can do really awesome stuff, that most moms don’t do. All while being the best mom I can be to her.

I want Maddie to grab life by the horns and tackle all the challenges that life can throw her and have fun doing it. Life should be fun not a series of lists and plans, but experiences to look back on.