To Lie, or Not to Lie

With Christmas sneaking up on us and being a mom of two, I can't help but think about Santa Claus and the lies we tell our children from day one.

It's all in the Christmas spirit to tell a child that Santa Claus is real and my husband and I even took things to the next level by giving our son an Elf On The Shelf. For those of you who have never heard of this, it is a book set that comes with the child's very own elf, which they get to name. The story is that each night the elf magically flies back to Santa's workshop and reports to him about the child's behavior and when they wake up the next morning the elf will be in a different spot in the house each morning until Christmas, when the elf then retreats back to the North Pole until the following year.

My son, who is seven, truly believes in all of this Christmas magic and it makes the holidays extra special and magical for everyone, including our two year old daughter. Although, I can't help but feel awful each morning when we wake up and he looks for Zeke. ( His elf) The excitement in his eyes is priceless. But then I think about how betrayed he might feel when he finds out one day that this was all something we made up.

I believed in Santa Claus until I was in middle school, until people told me I was a loser and that Santa Claus wasn't real. At which point I ran home, heartbroken, and begged my mother to tell me the truth. Once she revealed that the magical man of Christmas wasn't real, I actually cried and felt so hurt.

Is it wrong to lie about Santa? Should we emphasize the true meaning of Christmas and the religious aspect behind it all? I am one of those people who love to go crazy when it comes to gifts for my kids, but I just feel so bad about making up the reasons behind where the gifts come from.

Am I totally alone in all of this??

Dead Give Away

Being a mother is bittersweet. There are the great days, when your child is the picture of perfection and everything goes according to plan, then nap for three hours in the afternoon, sit like an angel at the dinner table, give you lots of hugs and kisses and you play blissfully until it is bedtime.

Then there are the days you wonder why you ever wanted children in the first place. There are tantrums after trantrums, food falling on the floor at dinner, pasta flying and don't let me forget the forty-five minute nap they took before noon.

At the end of the day it all really is worth it and you know you love your children no matter what kind of embarresments they put you through.

(My son at age three, screamed his head off all the way through the checkout line at Target and continued his tantrum all the way to the car and for the entire drive home over some dumb ass toy that he totally forgot about an hour later.)

Sometimes you can just look at a woman and tell she is a mother. Here is my list of, You Know You're A Mom If...

1. You have stickers anywhere on your body and don't realize until someone random stranger is pointing at your forehead and when you look in the mirror, Spongebob, or Hello Kitty is stuck to it.

2. You smell like soy milk, breast milk, or any kind of formula

3. You've become so immune to the smell of shit that it takes someone else to tell you your child has a poopy diaper.

4. You continue to watch the cartoon, or Disney movie, even after your child has lost interest or left the room

5. You tell other adults you have to go potty.

6. Your idea of date night involves Ben and Jerry and a spoon.

7.You wake up in the morning and see that it is eight am and think," Oh! We slept in this morning."

8. You are asleep before ten pm.

9. You find yourself humming tunes to your kids favorite shows while you are food shopping or running errands.

10.Nothing means more to you than your children.

I love every little annoying thing about both my children because they wouldn't be who they are if they were flawless well behaved tots.

It's the crazy stuff, the messes, and the fights that keeps life interesting.

Creating A New World

This blog post is really just a shout out to everyone who has inspired and helped me though the journey of writing a book.

There have been plenty of days when all I wanted to do was give up and cry. Staying awake all night because I was afraid if my idea's weren't written immediately I'd forget them. ( I probably would have!) Endless hours staring at my computer with writers block, just hoping something... anything would come to mind.

Knowing, and feeling so amateur compared to thousands of incredible writers out there, working as hard, if not harder than me, has at times made me feel like I have no idea what I'm doing.

But also knowing that even if I never get published, I have so many incredible friends that will read my first attempt at a book and I know I've accomplished something incredible. So thank you to everyone that has kept me going and told me to never give up and everyone who has listened to me complain and wiped my tears during my monthly meltdown.

Especially thank you to those of you that have let me bounce idea's off you, even if I wasn't making any sense. Thank you for the website suggestions, the harsh critique, and reading pages for me.

My book has become so real to me. I feel like the characters are apart of my life now, and I can't wait to share it with all of you.