Play-Learn-Grow-Repeat

I have officially survived my first divorced Christmas and birthday (Brady’s). I have to admit it wasn’t nearly as terrible as I thought it might be. This year I have sole custody though, so he was only away for 4-5 hours on December 23^rd (birthday party with daddy’s side of the family), December 24^th, and December 25^th. I survived, and I am proud.  There was one specific thing that got me through: assembling toys. Wow! I must admit that as the kids get older, the assembling seems to get worse. My main assembling included a train table, a bowling arcade, and numerous power tools. Now the bowling arcade and the power tools weren’t that bad…. Let’s not discuss the construction (and I do mean, construction) of the train table.

I am sure there are other divorced moms out there who can relate to this post and thought. Even though I survived, I did miss seeing Brady’s eyes when he first saw the giant dinosaur daddy bought him for his birthday or the 4-wheeler he got as a Christmas gift. It was also hard because each of the three days Brady was required (by the other side) to keep all toys at the party location. So he never got to bring home anything. I’m glad Brady took this well, and I assured him something special was also waiting for him at home. I guess their reasoning was that since they purchased the toys, they would stay at daddy’s house. My thought was just that he only spent maybe 4-8 hours per month at daddy’s house, so he wouldn’t get to use the toys much anyway.

Each year will bring on new struggles, triumphs, and pain. But we are family, maybe not a traditional one, but still a family. I am glad that the first holiday season is over. Ironically, I didn’t find Christmas depressing. New Year’s Eve was a bit sad, just thinking of all that had happened in 2009. Many things that I never thought “would happen to me.” But 2010 brought on a New Year and a chance for new beginnings. So let’s all hope that each year just gets easier and more civilized.