In the Home

Holiday Mom Magic

| Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L
Photo credit: A Bad Moms Christmas (2017)

Moms don’t en-joy, they give joy. That’s how being a mom works. – A Bad Moms Christmas

Thanksgiving starts a mad rush all the way through December. While we can’t speak for other religions and their traditions, Christmas has a chokehold on an entire month; bringing festivities, expectations, and Mariah Carey.

This onslaught includes: hours making and checking shopping lists, wrapping the gifts, sending out cards, decking the halls, baking the cookies, making the travel plans, and keeping the spirit of Christmas alive. And year after year, the person behind all of this isn’t Santa. It’s mom.

Why do we do this? Is it a rite of passage to level up as a mom? Is the expectation the same for dads? With a few weeks left before December 25th, let’s get to the bottom of this quandary and how we can alleviate this self-inflicted stress.

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Coffee Chat: Patti’s Thanksgiving Story

| Patti Webb

When Mary and I started talking about the holidays, I shared with her one of my particularly meh Thanksgivings. My parents divorced earlier than I can remember and I’ve been in a number of blended families growing up, making for some very awkward holidays to the say the least.

I had a Thanksgiving with my dad and grandmother where I was completely silent. I once spent the holiday with my mom and her friend who ended up being a hoarder. In 2008, I said I was thankful that Barack Obama was going to be president and an entire table of Boomer adults became unhinged. But in the story I’m sharing today, I am 20 and a junior at UF.

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Holiday Gift Guide 2023: Elementary School

| Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L

As kids enter their elementary school years, they have achieved many (if not all) of their developmental milestones. They feel confident enough in their skills to test their limits, try new things, make new friends, and seek more independence.

This must be the largest list we’ve made to date since there are so many good toys, games, and activities out there that our kids can benefit from.

Here’s our top picks for 2023 for elementary kids, 4 years and up:

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Fear Street: Irrational Fears in Kids

| Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L

Everyone gets scared. Fear is a primary emotion signaling that we are in danger, essentially ensuring our survival from a hostile situation. Although it can be overridden by our executive functions, some fears can’t be shaken, no matter how irrational they are. This is especially true for kids. Despite how trigger-happy their fear response is to the most random things, it’s all part of their growth and development.

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The Pumpkin Slayer: Pumpkin OT

| Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L

Every October, people flock to the pumpkin patch to find the perfect gourd to slice into to become a Halloween jack-o’-lantern. What kind of sick tradition is this? I mean, what did a pumpkin ever do to deserve this? Turns out this Halloween tradition was brought to us by European immigrants, dating back to a centuries-old Irish tale of a man named Stingy Jack.

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