The Holiday Card节日贺卡

It was two weeks before the holidays，and I still hadn’t sent out my holidaycards. Each year， my family gets dozens ofholiday cards from friends， and I wantedto send one out as well that year. We getall types of cards， like pictures of anentire1 family， pictures of the children，vacation pictures or even professionallyproduced pictures. Sometimes we receivecards with no pictures at all， just wishingus happy holidays in bright， bold2 letters.

After giving it some thought， Idecided to go with the family picture takenby a professional photographer. Afterdropping off my two boys at school， Icalled the local photographer and madethe appointment3. The photographer toldme since there wasn’t much time beforethe holidays， he would come on Sundaymorning and told me to have the wholefamily in white shirts. It sounded perfect.

那是离假期还有两周的时候，我还没有寄出我的节日贺卡。每年，我家都会从朋友那里收到几十张节日贺卡，那年我也想寄一张。我们会收到各种各样的贺卡，比如全家的照片、孩子的照片、度假照片，甚至是专业制作的照片。有时我们收到的贺卡上根本没有图片，只是用明亮、粗体的字母祝我们节日快乐。

经过思考，我决定选择专业摄影师拍摄的全家福。把我的两个儿子送到学校后，我打电话预约了当地的摄影师。摄影师告诉我，由于假期前没有太多时间，他会在周日早上来，并告诉我全家都要穿白衬衫。这听起来很完美。

Now， not only now did I have myusual five million things to do—volunteering， grocery4 shopping， cookingand making sure my family was happy—but I also had to find matching white topsfor my entire family. After visiting abunch of stores， I decided on white poloshirts for all of us. I couldn’t have askedfor a smoother morning. I was able tocontinue doing all my other errands5 witha smile， knowing that my family wasgoing to look great for the holidayphotograph session6.

I’m not sure where the rest of thehours went， but when I went to tuck7 inmy younger son on Saturday night， Inoticed his hair was a complete mess.OMG！ He needed a haircut. With all myrunning around， I hadn’t noticed howbadly he needed one. I didn’t know whatto do. It was 8：00 at night， and everysalon was closed. The photographer wascoming the next morning. I then becameresourceful8... or so I thought！

现在，我不仅要像往常一样做五百万件事情——志愿服务、买杂货、做饭和确保我的家人幸福——而且我还必须为我的全家找到相配的白色上衣。逛了一堆商店后，我决定为我们所有人选择白色马球衫。这个早晨真是再顺利不过了。我知道我的家人会以最漂亮的形象出席节日摄影活动，因此我可以微笑着继续做其他所有的差事。

我不确定剩下的时间花哪里去了，但当我周六晚上去给小儿子掖被子时，我注意到他的头发一团糟。天啊！他需要理发。我到处乱跑，没有注意到他多么需要理一次发。我不知道该怎么办。当时是晚上8 点，所有的理发店都关门了。摄影师第二天早上就要来了。然后我变机智了……至少我是这么认为的！

I got out the scissors I used to cutfabric9 and told my son to come into thebathroom where I set up a little salon. Myyounger son is very cooperative10. I wethis hair， combed11 it and startedsnipping12 away. When I was done， welooked at each other and both knew thatthe haircut was a disaster！ I started topanic13. What had I been thinking？ I hadnever cut hair in my life. Why did I thinkit would be so simple？ Now my little boywas paying the price.

Now， I had no other choice but to tellmy husband. When he saw my son， he gotcrazy. He said， “Our son has the worsthaircut I have ever seen on a little boy！ ”I was now sweating14， and words wouldnot come out of my mouth. I had noexcuse. All I could do was apologize15.My husband told me to go downstairs andhave a cup of tea while he took care ofthe situation.

I am a woman of many talents， butobviously cutting hair is not one of them. Iwas always trying to juggle16 everything，fix everything， and have all the answers.Sometimes， I needed to take a step back.If something didn’t get done or fixed， itwas not going to be the end of theworld. As tears filled my eyes， my soncame downstairs with his older brother.

I couldn’t believe my eyes... Isaw the two cutest boys with buzzcuts17！ And minutes later， myhusband joined in with a buzz， too！

My beautiful family holidaycards went out on time—just with alittle less hair！

我拿出我用来剪布料的剪刀，让儿子走进浴室，我把那里布置成了一个小理发间。我的小儿子非常配合。我把他的头发打湿，梳了梳，然后开始剪。当我完成后，我们面面相觑，都知道这次理发是一场灾难！我开始慌了。我在想什么？我这辈子从来没有剪过头发。为什么我认为它会这么简单？现在我的小男孩正在为此付出代价。

现在，我别无选择，只能告诉我丈夫。当他看到我儿子时，他疯了。他说：“我们儿子的发型是我见过的小男孩中最糟糕的！”我现在满头大汗，张口结舌。我没有任何借口。我所能做的就是道歉。我丈夫让我去楼下喝杯茶，他来处理这件事。

我是一个多才多艺的女子，但显然理发不是我才艺的其中之一。我总是试图处理一切，解决一切，并得到所有的答案。有时，我需要后退一步。如果某件事没有完成或解决，那也不会是世界末日。就在我满眼泪水时，我儿子和他的哥哥一起走下了楼。

我简直不敢相信我的眼睛……我看到了两个留着寸头的最可爱的男孩！几分钟后，我丈夫也加入了寸头大军！

我美丽的家庭节日贺卡准时寄出了———只是头发少了一点！

（英语原文选自：chickensoup.com）