Merry Christmas!

We had an exceptional day today!! Dustin came very early this morning to watch the kids open presents. We then went to his house where the kids opened gifts that Santa had left for them there. I headed off to church for rehearsal while they played with their new toys. Then they came to church for the Christmas candle lighting service. It wasn't what you would call a normal Christmas, but it's becoming our new normal, and our children feel loved! I couldn't have asked for anything better than that!

First day of Christmas break.

I'm about to get real here. Hold on to your pants!

Two days ago was the first day of Christmas break for Brooklyn. The dynamic around here changes when all three of the kiddos are home and my 7 year old princess is home with here 3 year old twin brothers. The activities for the day change a bit as to try and entertain the vastly different ages. Chaos....for me. I was chosen to be there mother and I'm certain it was not because of the shallow depth of my child management abilities. Some days are better than others though. However, the first day of Christmas break was not one of those days.

I'm going to cut to the chase here or this is going to get really long. The kids were heathens from the moment they woke up and I was NOT patient. You already know....this is not a good combination! We all have some sort of variation of this day.

So....lots of time outs were given that day, and way too many times did I yell at my children. Evidently, more than I realized because toward the end of the day, my daughter said that she felt like I hated her. Awesome. Parental fail.

GAIN: Realizing my daughter's primary love language is Words of affirmation.

Now for a better tomorrow!

What is your child's love language? How do they know you are proud of them and loved beyond measure? I'd love to hear from you!

Here are your choices: (from a book I highly recommend for every parent, Gary Chapman's book , "The Five Love Languages of Children.")

• Physical Touch
• Words of Affirmation
• Quality Time
• Gifts
• Acts of Service