Eggnog Latte Season is Here

For some, the holiday season creeps in malignantly like an unwelcome pest slowly populating in the dark crevices of an otherwise innocent abode. For others, it arrives fully blown on December 15th, unnoticed until panic sets in with sudden realization. For me, it comes with the annual Eggnog Latte arrival at Starbucks, and in the dairy section of the local grocery store.

Christmas isn't Christmas without eggnog, and I don't even drink.

I recently met a stay-at-home mom who lives for eggnog lattes. She said that she and her husband consider the holiday season started once they are available, and that perhaps they should begin their calendar year at that time.

I think I may have found a soul mate.

Not that liking lattes is enough of a link to become best friends. There is also the fact that she is tolerant of raucous preschoolers (since she has one), breastfeeds her baby on demand, and is a stay-at-home mom struggling to find time to work while raising the kids.

Actually, I think I might be finally finding a tribe. There is the mom who recently moved from across the street--a lawyer who is staying at home with her two year old: smart as a whip, patient as a saint and unbelievably tolerant of my raucous preschooler for a first-time mom.

Then there is the lesbian mother with a child the same age as our youngest, who is trying to balance educational work, motherhood and music, a juggling act that occasionally drives her crazy but makes her interesting, if she ever has a moment to connect.

Even one or two other mothers on a similar path can ease the madness associated with wondering how many time-outs in row it will take to eradicate the word "stupid" from a three-year-old vocabulary, and the self-doubt raised when you decide that feeding your child on the floor when he's playing chameleon, even a dirty restaurant floor, is acceptable.

It may be a happy holiday season, this year.

On the easel: Blue and Azul
On the laptop: How to Keep Cool During a Public Toddler Tantrum
Under the art table: a litebrite
On the nightstand: Third Girl by Agatha Christie
On tape: The China Governess by Margery Allingham
On my mind: Son's birthday, wife's work, daughter's friends, other son's obsession with the video game Pikmin, my obsession with the Oregon Humane Society website, being happy to see sunshine outside