You know what they say… it’s the most wonderful time of the year right?

In all truth, this stretch of time between Thanksgiving (my favorite holiday of course) and the winter holidays is really a magical season. Christmas music is on full blast in the van (by request from the girls). The decorations are up (well, almost… the outside decorations are halfway there). The tree has been decorated during our annual tradition of spending Black Friday watching This Christmas, followed by college football rivalry games. Memories made and traditions kept. Like I said.. the most wonderful time of the year right?

I’m not so sure the universe got the memo last week.

Last week in the span of under 24 hours our car broke down (fortunately I was able to get it to a mechanic before I was stranded). I spent half a day taking my friend to the hospital (he’s fine). And then—because apparently we were auditioning for a holiday survival movie—a pipe burst in our house, flooding the yard, causing thousands in damage, and leaving us without running water. For a moment it looked like this nightmare was going to stretch on for days. But we caught a bit of grace: all the utilities teams came out immediately, marked the ground, and the plumbers got to work replacing the pipe. Normalcy inch by inch began to return.

At one point during this stretch of time while we were returning a car we’d borrowed from my sister to get around, my wife and I sat in total silence, equal parts disbelief and exhaustion. And then we did that thing couples who’ve been through the trenches together know how to do: we cracked a few jokes and just laughed at how absurd it all was. Sometimes levity is the only way through a week that refuses to let up.

And it turns out, a little holiday magic was waiting just around the corner.

The next night (thankfully a Friday) was mercifully the end of this gauntlet of a week. We curled up in the family room to watch this week’s pick, Spirited, an instant classic from a few years ago that’s been added to the family holiday viewing rotation. As we sang along to the songs and laughed, you would have thought that everything was just fine, like we hadn’t just lived through a harrowing past couple of days.

But we still had Saturday to contend with, full of activities including London’s first basketball game, the Children’s Business Fair which would be outside in the cold all day, and somehow I wanted to watch the SEC championship game. All of this was supposed to happen at overlapping times, so clearly something obviously had to give.

I ended up taking London to her game where she did well (a few steals and a couple of rebounds while playing solid defense). My sister and I cheered her on representing the family in the stands. Meanwhile, back at the business fair, the other girls were busy selling and promoting their business ventures that they’d worked for weeks (and in Olivia and Riley’s case, months).

After the game we raced across town to join the rest of the crew and London went to work on her own booth. By the end of the afternoon not only did each of the girls make enough money to either break even on their investments or turn a profit, but Olivia won the award for the best overall business (for the second year in a row!). For an added bonus, I even got to sneak away a little early to head home and enjoy my Georgia Bulldogs smash Alabama in the SEC championship game.

How’s that for a little holiday magic?

Sometimes the magic isn’t in a perfect week, it’s in the way joy still finds you, even after everything has gone sideways. It’s in the moments that remind you that life can be hard, ridiculous, beautiful, and generous… all in the same 48 hours.

SDW3