Looking Ahead

Looking forward to:

• March 10 - Our 10 Year Anniversary. We'll be leaving the kids behind at Grandma's house and heading to Disney World by ourselves! I cannot wait. I have all sorts of "Grown Up" dinners planned and a tour that we couldn't do with the kids. We might even try parasailing.
• June 4 - We're leaving Mike behind and I'm taking the kids, my mom, and my sister to Disney World!
• Summer vacation - since the kids are getting older we can do more and more fun stuff! Maybe another camping trip?
• Our annual Dell's vacation with Mike's family - Quinn is truly swimming now and I have a feeling Liam might be close by that time!

I resolve to:

• Stop using Drive Thrus. Think about - nothing good ever came out of a drive thru window. This shouldn't be too difficult, the only drive thru I've been relying on has been Starbucks. So, now if I want a Vanilla Soy latte, I'm going to have to get out of my car and go in there and get it. Or, send Mike. =)
• Use my reusable bags more often.
• Continue checking food labels and only buy/eat food that has simple ingredients.
• Try rock climbing at the gym.
• Plan a vacation for 2012 that is not to Disney World. I know there's more to see than Mickey and Minnie - it's just there's a magnet there that pulls me towards it all the time!

Looking Back

Favorite memories:

• February trip to Disney World with our good friends! Not sure when we'll be going back with them, but that was our second trip together and everything went so smoothly. It's amazing that our entire family and their entire family get along so well!
• Christmas with my family - this year was definitely one of the best and I have so many happy memories from that day!

Best finds:

• I started drinking tea at home instead of coffee. I used to have to add a ton of sugar and milk to my coffee. I can drink my tea "black". I really love Stash's Spicy Chai tea in the morning. And then Stash's green tea during the day. Right now, I'm enjoying an herbal bedtime story mix by Lipton. I can drink my tea iced or hot.
• Yoga. My goodness. It took me years to figure this out. First, "yoga isn't about being good at it," is what a good friend of mine told me once while I was complaining about not being "good at it or flexible enough." But that's not all, I found a teacher that holds that same philosophy. As she says, "Let go of your ego and honor your body for where it's at in the pose." She has so many great phrases, one of my favorites being, "smile!" Since I've let go of my ego I've come to really enjoy my yoga time and I've been able to go deeper into most of the poses. Now I feel as if I'm a yoga pusher - anyone that shows any slight interest in yoga I can't help but encourage them and encourage them and then ask if they've tried it out yet! I've learned what yoga classes to avoid at the gym (fitness yoga or warrier sculpt) and which ones I enjoy (vinyasa or hatha).

Things I wouldn't mind not doing again:

• Quinn's surgery and recovery.
• Dealing with the budget cuts at work. (This, I'm afraid will be rearing it's ugly head early in 2011.)

I said I would (and what I actually did):

• read more news magazines and books - I've read quite a few books this past year. I tried a few news magazines, but didn't really enjoy reading them at all!
• read less blogs - I feel sort of guilty, I rarely check my google reader. If a friend posts a link to a blog post via facebook, I'll check it out.
• eat less McDonald's - Did it! Not only that, we very rarely get any fast food now. I can cound on one hand the number of times I either ate McDonald's or got it for my kids. I'm planning on zero trips for 2011.
• try cooking more often - Ugh. Still can't get into the cooking thing. I think I tried one meal in January. If I do cook, it's the old stand by of spaghetti.
• buy less stuff - Hmmm... after the shopping spree I was on today I'm not too sure. I will say, our Christmas was scaled way down. The kids don't need so much and when I'm shopping I find myself putting back a lot of the things I pick up. I've still go to work on this, but I have gotten better.
• donate more - yup! I'm constantly going thru our toys and clothes and packing bags up to donate.

One Winter Day

Talking About Santa With a Thinker

Ahhh - the questions about Santa have begun this year. After Quinn's birthday party at the end of November we decided Quinn would choose half of his presents to donate to the various toy drives so that some children who don't have as much as we do could have a happier Christmas. He was good with this. But then he thought about it... "Well, we shouldn't worry too much about them, because Santa will bring them presents." Turns out other people only have one or two gifts come from Santa, the rest from Mom and Dad. We never did that. I may try to make that switch this year - I wonder if he'll remember.

We went and saw Santa at one mall - the same mall we go to every year. Then, I had some shopping to do at a different mall - and Santa was there! Quinn's first question was, "How many Santas are there?" And I just asked what he meant by that. And then he switched his thinking to, "Santa must have some really special magic to be able to go to our mall in the morning, this mall at night, AND be in that parade that was on TV the other day!"

And then there's the talk of "naughty or nice". Quinn truly believes that there are two boys in his class that are getting nothing for Christmas because they are so "naughty". And so I try to explain that somehow, Santa knows just how good each boy or girl can be and expects them to be their own best and that it's very hard for those two boys to control themselves and Santa might be a bit understanding with them. Quinn didn't like that answer.

And then tonight I had to do it. After weeks of fighting with his brother, arguing with his parents, and even lying - I've had enough - so I put the fear of Santa into Quinn. "You do know, that Santa's watching to make sure you're nice, right?" We had a nice long discussion that involved just a few tears, until I assured Quinn that he still has many days until Christmas, and that for the most part, he is a very very very good boy - just that I was a little worried that Santa wouldn't like all the fighting that's been going on. (I mean really, people, the boys have been fighting over moving ornaments, setting up the nativity scene, pushing the buttons on those things from hallmark that sing Christmas Songs, everything and anything they've been fighting over it and it's driving me BATTY.) So we discussed how many more days he has to add more to the nice side of his list and then he said, "Well, actually, since I'm at school more than I'm at home, I think I'm okay. I'm always nice at school."