Not So Silent Night

It really sucks that no matter what a little brat the little man is, "Santa doesn't bring presents to boys who don't behave!" is such an obviously empty threat.  He totally doesn't buy it.  Maybe it's because we don't really build up the whole Santa-myth.  Maybe it's because he's three.  He seems to think being three explains everything - Why did you kick the cat? Because I'm three. - perhaps he's right and next year Santa will have some power over his behavior.  Perhaps next year he will just magically be over this I'm-going-to-argue-with-everything-you-say attitude.  He's driving his father and me nuts.  The level of disagreeability just keeps going up.  Last night he screamed "NO!" for a good ten minutes because he wanted to write in the condensation on a window of my dad's house; the problem being that the condensation was on the inside of the glass.  Such matters of physical reality do not matter to this child however; he just wanted to write on the damn window.  Grrr...

Either way he's still getting presents on Christmas because neither of us is enough of a hard ass to revoke a whole day.  

Thankfully, our Christmas family-juggling is finally worked out.  We have the little man all day tomorrow; we're spending the first half of the day with BF's mom, the second half with my mom, her BF, and my brother, then taking him to his mom's so that he can wake up there Christmas morning.  And while he's opening presents at his mom's, we'll be at my dad & A.'s opening presents with my brother and my step-siblings and then - and I am so proud of this part - I actually worked a two hour nap into the schedule before BF and I head over to his mom's for dinner.  Then we get a couple days to relax before we go to Disney on Ice next Saturday (a very generous gift from BF's friend/boss and his girlfriend) and then we'll be getting together with Dad & A. (and the kids) to do dinner early next week and have them do presents with the little man.  So hopefully things will go smoothly; I'm going to try my hardest to keep my anxiety under control (utilizing my Ativan Rx as necessary) and to not let anything get to me.  If BF and I both get stressed and snappy things get rather unpleasant, but if one of us can keep it under control we can usually talk the other off the ledge.

Oh and two great big Christmas presents for me from the universe; one very dear friend will be coming home for good after a two year tour of duty in Iraq and another will be coming home from Austin.  I miss them both a whole lot and I can't wait to see them again.  

I hope all of you are getting to enjoy the holidays with your friends and family, whether they be Christian, Jewish, or otherwise affiliated (or unaffiliated, as I am).  I'll be checking in again before New Years with something less current events...you know, all of that looking forward, looking back stuff.  I think we all get a little reflective this time of the year and this has been quite a year to reflect on.  And gasp I've actually been keeping up with this blog for more than a year now so I even get to reflect on my reflections...Sounds like a lot of work now that I put it in writing.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, or have a good Thursday - choose your flavor!