Merry Christmas!

Christmas 1984 - San Diego, California
With my unicorn and a My Little Pony castle

Wishing all of you the child-like magic and wonder of Christmas! Thank you for making this such a great blogging year. I've loved getting to know new friends and learning more about each of you. I can't wait to continue the journey in 2012. Happy Holidays!

What's been your favorite thing about blogging this year? What's your favorite Christmas memory/toy from your childhood?

Mommy Failed-it/Mommy Nailed-it

My five-year-old told me last Friday he hadn't received a Christmas candy-gram at school (parents and friends can buy a candy-cane and send it to a student) while one of his friends got three. I'd forgotten about the candy-grams and told him we'd see if they were still doing it this week. Unfortunately we learned Monday the candy gram event was over. My son ran to his room, heartbroken. We tried consoling him by telling him that they do the same thing at Valentine's Day, but he said that was too far away. Mommy Failed-it.

That same night, out of the blue, my seven-year-old asked me, "So how's your book going?" I told him what I'd been working on lately. "Are you going to publish it?" he asked. "That's what Mom's trying to do," I said. He replied, "That'd be cool to get the book." Then he asked this insightful question, "Has anybody said 'yes, it's good?'" Mommy Nailed-it.

Okay, so I can't really take credit for this, but I appreciated his excitement and was pleasantly surprised at his grasp of the situation. Where I feel like I nailed it as a mom is I didn't have to tell him I'd quit or I wasn't doing that anymore. I was able to tell him I was still working toward my dreams.

After a conversation with my hubby earlier that day, I realized how often I site my Mommy Fail moments - or the other things I'm not doing or getting right - but that's easy. Anybody can write a list a mile long of the things they aren't doing or getting wrong. It's much harder to think of and REMEMBER the Mommy Nailed-it moments, the things I do right. And that is what I am going to focus on - now and this coming year.

What are some of your Mommy Nailed-it moments? What do you do to avoid focusing on what you haven't accomplished? Do you think the toddler in the photo above is trying to say,"Mom, you failed it" or "Mom, you nailed it"?

Curing My Stress

Last week was crazy - the flu bug we had a couple weeks ago made a slight return along with a dose of coughs/colds. All adding up to STRESS for this mom. But no worries, I found me some great stress cures over the weekend.

First, I got to hang out with my good friend and critique partner Ali Cross at the launch of her YA novel BECOME. And since I brought my second son along, I got a mini-date too. The party was incredibly fun. Ali's main character Desi rocks in the ninja-moves department and so there were karate shows and a sweet bow-staff demonstration at the launch. My son and I had a great time.

Second, I went shopping by myself that night. What made this even more blissful, besides being in my own little cocoon of quiet as I roamed the store at will, was I told myself I wasn't going to get all the Christmas shopping done in one night so I just needed to enjoy the time to myself and do what I could/felt like. And I did.

Third, I bought myself a chocolate treat - the good Swiss kind. These Toblerone chocolates with nuts are delicious and can be found at most grocery stores.


All in all, positive outlook was restored, stress levels were contained, and thankfully the sickies are all on the mend!

What do you do to turn around a bad day/week? What keeps your stress levels down?