Learning to say goodbye to the control freak

So tonight we planned to .....

 take the girls to see Santa (which Mia has been desperate to do)

look at some lights

 eat dinner out

well the reality of my life is things never go as planned


so instead ....

the line was Soooo long Santa was skipped

as we got a late start everyone was hungry and grumpy so the lights were skipped

 dinner did happen, but not where I had planned

 boys home to do homework

shopping for me at Walmart for Ben's school project and Ethan's play

 girls already in bed when I got home

as you can see someone else was a little upset about our change of plans and not seeing Santa

As a bit of a control freak, learning to go with the flow and be flexible and not get grumpy when the plans that I have meticulously created in my head do not happen is still something I am working on.

(I know you are all thinking - isn't she supposed to be the mom and a good example to her kids)

Although I have to say I managed to not throw any childish tantrums, or state more than once that tonight wasn't quite the Christmassie family night I had planned - which is actually progress when I recall some of my other (not so proud of) moments.

The reality is we were together. We smiled, laughed, argued a little, maybe even annoyed one another a little - but we were family, together, growing - so who cares if our night wasn't the "perfect greeting card" evening - I am totally satisfied, and loved my not so "perfect" Christmas night.

Disclaimer : this is huge for me - if Chris reads this he will be using it against me the next time things don't go to plan (which will probably be tomorrow)!!!!