We had Christmas early this year.
Sunday we gathered the boys, skipped the turkey in favour of tacos, and opened presents. Low-key and warm and exactly what it needed to be. Next weekend: my parents and the girls, the full turkey dinner, the decorations, all of it. My eldest in Ottawa will join by Skype.
These early goodbyes are strange. You want to see everyone, but time runs out fast and eventually you have to be honest about priorities. One of the things nobody tells you about living with an ADHD brain — especially before you know that’s what it is — is that transition is genuinely hard. Not the decision to go. The leaving itself. The moment between what was and what’s next, when you’re fully in it and there’s no more preparing to do.
I manage it the same way I manage most things: by focusing on the next task, the next visit, the next item on the list. It’s not avoidance — it’s how my brain copes with things too big to hold all at once.
One week from today. The cats appear to be adjusting to the LitterKwitter, which Thomas considers a personal victory.