Come on now, you know you've either heard that phrase or used it before yourself. I really like this phrase because (1) I'm the only girl in this house and (2) I'm Mrs. Claus year round.
What do I mean by Mrs. Claus? Let me explain. While Mr. Claus works so very hard outside of the house on a daily basis to make money for our family (and we're so blessed to have such a hard working Mr. Claus in our family who takes really good care of us), Mrs. Claus is the one who makes sure every person in the family is happy, healthy, fed, nurtured, and all around taken care of day in and day out, 24/7, 365 days a year. She's the one who finds, addresses, and mails out birthday/anniversary/thinking of you cards, the one who makes sure the house doesn't go without toilet paper, the one who keeps track of the family's schedule, the one who buys all the birthday/Christmas gifts, the one who wraps all the birthday/Christmas gifts, the one who plans every birthday party down to the last detail, and the one who makes sure everyone has proper clothes for the next season and/or the next size.
Let me say that I am blessed to be married to an amazing Mr. Claus. He appreciates what I give of myself to our family and friends, and that noted appreciation and reciprocation of being an active parent and leader of our family is what keeps me going, along with the smiles of my precious, healthy boys.
I don't ask for much, and I don't love expensive things. But what I do love, I love. And while we lived in Korea for nearly 6 months before traveling back home to Texas, I racked my brain with what I missed about our life there. Like I said, I don't ask for much and I like to think I'm a pretty flexible person when it comes to living in a different country, so it actually took me a while to figure something out that I missed that wasn't so obvious, like Velveeta cheese, Kraft macaroni and cheese, refried beans, sour cream, Reese's peanut butter cups, foaming hand soap from Bath & Body Works in the Japanese Cherry Blossom scent, and Target.
But then it hit me. I miss the way my house in America smelled. There's something to be said for scents. Have you ever smelled the cologne of a man walking by and were reminded of your husband's favorite cologne? What about smelling someone's lotion and being transported back to your grandma's bathroom where she kept a gallon of that same lotion? Yeah, I thought so. That's what I missed about my home in Texas. I miss the fragrances I had scattered throughout the rooms in my house that made it feel like home.
That's when I decided that the #1 thing I wanted to take back to Korea from our visit to Texas was a Scentsy warmer and scents....the same scents I had in our house in Texas. I even had to go a step further and buy a converter online because the voltage of the warmer is different than the voltage here in Korea....but it was worth it. Just in the week since we've been back, I've caught myself numerous times saying how happy I am to have it here and how good it makes our condo smell.
While I was over the moon to bring back Reese's, cake mix and icing, new crafts to keep us busy, and new winter coats to keep us warm in our first real cold winter experience, I was even happier that I was able to find a tiny amount of space among everything else stuffed in our 12 bags to bring back this little piece of our old home. And that, my friends, makes this momma happy. :)
