“le mieux est le mortel ennemi du bien”

Fádo, fádo…I had a surgical mentor who used to quote this to me when I was too intense.  It can be translated as “perfection is the enemy of good”  He was a Francophone and I spoke passable French, so he quoted it in the original French.  He used it in context when things were good enough and in pursuit of perfection, it was possible that things could, in fact, actually get worse.

A perfectionist by nature, I kept this in mind today as I attempted my first-ever gingerbread house.  This was a specific request this year from 8 y.o. T., so we planned it and scheduled time to do this today.   Despite my planning and printed out templates – my still-in-progress doesn’t quite look like Mary Berry’s.

One approach would be to start over or continue to trim walls… but then, it’s not the Great British Bake-Off, is it?  The boys have had a brilliant day making the dough and sticking on the almond “roof tiles” and waiting hours for it to cool to try to stand it up.   Currently now being supported by tins of beans.

My instinct is to pursue perfection here, but instead I asked T.:  what do you think?  Lopsided walls?  Runny “glue”?  He and little brother C. are simply delighted with the effort as it is.  If it survives the night, I’ll post a picture tomorrow after we stick the decorations on.  If it doesn’t survive, I’m just adding a T-Rex to the tableau… it will still taste find.

The pressure, on women especially, to produce the perfect Christmas can be immense:  the food, the presents, the decorations, the experiences.  It’s hard to remember that Instagram isn’t real.  TikTok isn’t real.  And the expectations are for “good” – not perfect.  Breathe, relax – it’s all good.   And that’s more than good enough.

Healthy Holidays is a virtual  advent calendar focusing on ways to look after your health this season.