Small Successes-December 8th

Celebrating the little things in life that add up.

1. I wrapped and tagged all the Christmas gifts.  I had most of the stuff wrapped already but I had a fair amount of things that needed wrapping.  Everything needed tags.  I decided to be proactive and also tag the gifts for the kids.  I usually do that on Christmas Eve to discourage peekers but this year I simply don't care.  Madeline made it known to me several times this week that she knows that Santa comes from St. Nicholas and that he's a saint in heaven.  She also told me that her friend at school was defending Santa to the non-believing classmates by saying that he's a spirit.  So Madeline told me she agrees with that as well, he's a saint and he's carried on in spirit.  I'm proud of Madeline for being a good big sister and not coming out and questioning Santa or flat out saying he's make believe.  She's playing along with the Santa thing and not spoiling the fun for Ellie.  I'm still not a fan of the whole Santa thing, but since he's not causing anxiety in my children the way he did for me I'm willing to go with the flow, but the fat guy in the red suit is only getting credit for a stocking and two gifts per child.

2. Last night Katie slept for nearly eight hours straight.  I was stunned when I woke up on the couch at 3:30am and she was still asleep in the playard.  Bryan moved her up to our bedroom where she slept until 4:50am.  I'm pretty impressed with her almost 9-5 stretch of sleeping.  Now if she could just go from 10-6 I'd be thrilled.  Madeline and Ellie both slept through the night starting at 6 and 8 weeks respectively so I'm hoping that Katie is following in their footsteps.

3. The laundry once again was out of control but I managed to get it all washed.  The other day I had everything folded and put away, but as of right now I have a sizable pile of clean clothes that need to be sorted, folded and put away.  A pile of clean clothes is better than a pile of ones that need to be washed.

4. I sent my Christmas cards out in the mail today.  Last night I was in a pretty bad mood where I spent most of the evening complaining about everything that was wrong from messes the kids made to things that needed to be done, like getting the Christmas cards labeled, stamped and mailed.  I begrudgingly  decided to shut up and do something about the things that were irritating me starting with the Christmas cards and Madeline's  birthday party thank you notes that have been waiting for me to address them since early October. So those things are now out of the house and I can not longer rant about them being on the dining room table.  I'm sure Bryan and the girls will be happy that I'm not going to be complaining about them now.

5. I didn't cause a scene at Mass last night when Ellie was doing lots of little things [that in reality probably weren't as bad as I thought they were] to irritate the crap out of me. What really set me off was when she decided to RUN up and down the side aisle after Mass when I was talking to another mom.  I came home and complained to Bryan about his daughter's dismal behavior and proceeded to criticize the poor child for the rest of the night.  Yesterday was one of those days where I clearly forgot that Ellie is a 6 year old child and is often going to act like one.  I realized by the girls' bedtime last night that Mommy needs to go to confession.  The past few days alone have been enough to warrant me needing to go.

6. I have started carving out a little bit of time each day to read some of the books I need to review.   I have quite the pile of books to review and it's been bothering me for the past couple of weeks.

7. While I totally failed to remember to buy candy for St. Nicholas day and then forgot to scrounge for candy and put it in the girls' stockings when I remembered the evening before, I did make up for it by going to Target the day of and getting chocolate Santa's (which I converted into St. Nicholas) and coins and having them ready when the girls came home from school.  Next year I'm writing a reminder on my weekly planner to buy the candy ahead of time so I'm not unprepared.  It's so hard to believe that I taught my religious ed class about St. Nicholas on Sunday and wasn't prepared to celebrate the feast day at my house on Tuesday.  The girls were happy when they came home and found candy waiting for them on the kitchen table.