Motherhood has a quiet way of exposing every fracture, every hidden fear, leaving you feeling as though you are always just shy of enough—especially when your daughter is a teenager. December, with its glittering promises of warmth and wonder, only sharpens the edges, turning small disagreements into storms and fleeting frustrations into waves of guilt. She presses against the boundaries of your patience, you push back in kind, and in the stillness, you recognize the reflecti