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Family Marriage

The Blended Family Conundrum–Time vs. Money

This weekend over dinner the Mr. and I were discussing quite a few issues regarding the direction our family is headed in for the new year and our goals as husband and wife, mother and father.

While talking we somehow started a casual conversation regarding the disparities that exist amongst children of blended families. While these children share one parent there is indeed a difference in parenting and the method by which each child’s needs are met. I for one always hate when these issues come to the table because we are a “blended family” and I admittedly have many mixed feelings considering I was raised by a single mother, and every other weekend I was thrust into a blended family environment. Despite my past and clear understanding of the plight of the outside child and the struggling single mother, my feelings regarding the situation are almost always lopsided and most often skewed in the best interest of my children. Selfish? Yes. Human? Yes. Any mother in my opinion wants the best for her children and anything that doesn’t fall in line with that agenda in my book will undoubtedly get the *side eye*.  I digress.

So the conversation in detail was regarding the fact that the non custodial child gets less than the child that stays in the home because they don’t have access to both of their parents, so if a little extra change, doll, iPad or new sneakers are presented its okay because those things will never make up for the child not having both parents in the household.

I’m not convinced..are you?!

Christmas Family My Babies

Whirlwind Weekend

How was your weekend? Mine was extra busy for sure, but Lil Man had a ball. He was able to spend some time with his buddies and his cousins, however I am sure if you ask him what the highlight of the weekend was he will tell you we finally got our Christmas tree.

Saturday morning a couple of my mommy besties and I took the children to a candy cane hunt and Christmas festival. It was fuhreeeeezing out there, but its all about the babies and they were having fun. We made gingerbread houses, decorated cookies and danced..who can resist the Cha Cha slide. I was babysitting my niece and nephew so when all was said and done between the four of us there were eight children (two are hiding in the pic). Might I mention keeping up with that many children in an outdoor space is quite the job.


Candy Cane hunt
I’ve discovered Flickr!!

After our hands and toes were nice and frozen we parted ways and I headed back home to pack up my babies. The inlaws took them for the night and the Mr. and I had the opportunity to go out and have a nice dinner together. We grabbed the kids the next morning and headed to get the Christmas Tree!

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Outside of the car



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Inside of the car..I love to see him happy! Like his Flickr hat?!!

No sooner than we get the tree in the house, I am dashing back out the door with Lil Mama in tow to go and support one of my friends at her trunk show..I bought myself a few things, and chatted it up with the homies and headed home to finish up some homework..1 week left until school can kick rocks permanently.

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Finally its time to decorate, on Monday afternoon….Thank you all for your suggestions regarding how to handle him decorating. I have decided to get them their own little tree as well as let them add a few ornaments of their choice to the family tree. My stepdaughter will be here in a few weeks and so that she feels included we will undertake that project when she gets here.

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into everything

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I suppose we’ll attack the outdoor lights tomorrow.

Are your decorations up yet? If not, what’s the hold up? I can ask that now that mine are finally done!

Christmas Family My Babies

Whose Tree is It Anyway?

After my last post regarding starting holiday traditions with my son, I took him to Walmart with the intention for him to pick out a few ornaments that he liked so we could put them on the tree. The tree we don’t have yet, no I’m not being sarcastic just mad that I can’t lift the tree out of the car, hold it with one hand while screwing it into the stand all by myself with the other, I digress. My tree for the past few years has been decorated with red and silver ornaments, pretty red hand tied bows and white twinkling lights. I have refused the adding of any “icicles” you know the silver stringy things that are a pain to clean up or any ornament that doesn’t go with the color scheme.

When I made the offer to him to pick out a few ornaments, I never thought for a minute he would be smitten with Handy Manny, Playhouse Disney, Diego, and other character based ornaments. I managed to hold him off while I thought of my strategy to tell him that those things don’t match the decor of the tree and therefore would not be purchased. Yes, I sound uber ridiculous..Christmas IS for the babies right?

But what about my treeeeee, the one I don’t have?! I should just give it up right, and become obsessed with the mantle and the wreath and let the kids have at the tree. You know colorful blinking lights, singing ornaments, bubble lights (I happened to love those as a child, unfortunately they don’t come in red and silver..I checked), icicles galore, different colored candy canes, no rhyme or reason or do I purchase them their own little tree for their decorating pleasure. I know the answer, but I would really like to hear your thoughts.

Have you dealt with this? What would you do?!

The Christmas Tree Grinch,
Mimi

Life mommy My Babies

Christmas Memories—Cookies!!

I have these warm and fuzzy memories of Christmas time as a child. My mom baked, she made crafts with me, took me ice skating along with a plethora of other activities that made me cry when Christmas was over. These memories even evoke a few tears now as I think of her and all of the sacrifices she made to create a magical holiday experience for me as a child as a single mother. There is no doubt in my mind that if she was still here she would be taking it to the next level for my children. Unfortunately she isn’t, so I have to grab the torch and start creating memories for my children. I must say I am a bit disappointed in myself for not creating a better experience for my son. However, there is no better time than the present to make a change. Lil Man is now 5, the perfect age for me to start creating awesome holiday memories for him. Over the next few weeks, I will post a series called “Christmas Memories” under which I will detail projects, and places that we attend in starting our own family Christmas traditions. For all my faithful readers for the 4,589th time you know I don’t cook, I don’t bake and I’m not crafty so these posts are sure to pack holiday cheer and laughter in the literal sense!

Last night started the festivities. He asked about making Christmas cookies, and I promised him we would, but that was before I realized I was exhausted. For those of you with children around Lil Man’s age you already know there is no such thing as making a promise and not sticking to it. He must have asked a million times when we were going to start on the cookies. It was in the best interest of my sanity to stand by my word, so I headed out in the pouring rain toWalmart for cookie cutters, cookie mix and sugar and we made cookies…..


All supplies on deck




Let’s get this party started




Mixing it up



The next step called for flattening the dough on a floured surface. I decided to put the flour on the kitchen table so he could reach, and since I don’t have a rolling pin we had to improvise and use a carafe *gotta stay quick on your feet*



He’s working it out…



Dad even joined in on the fun after calling me out for the bootleg rolling pin


The end product…I turned my back for a minute, thus the insane amount of sugar

Check out Lil Mama eyeing the cookies with the open hand

After all was said and done he was so happy..and that made me ecstatic. We sat down together and enjoyed them with a glass of milk over a mother and son discussion about his day. I think our first activity went over well!
What are some of your favorite Christmas traditions?