Well, the musical is finally over and life at the Eller household is getting back to normal. As normal as it gets anyway. Christmas is approaching and I love this time of year. The accumulating debt, the freezing weather, the endless demands from your children….what’s not to love. We will be traveling to my grandmother’s for Christmas so we will be celebrating TEN days early. Nothing like putting more pressure on all the festivities. You would think that getting to open your presents early would make any child squeal with glee. Not Michael. He tried to convince me to open them even earlier. His argument was that if we opened them on Saturday night he wouldn’t be able to sleep on Friday night. He explained that he has a basketball clinic on Saturday morning and he was going to “suck ” for lack of sleep. After listening patiently I explained that little boys who used the word “suck” to their mother shouldn’t be excited to open presents because they would be getting socks and underwear. Therefore it would be better to go to the clinic a little sleepy than majorly disappointed. He was not a happy camper. It just goes to show that no matter what you do and how good your kids have it they will still try to negotiate for a better deal. Our job as parents is to stand firm. We need to try to teach them to be grateful for what they have and appreciate the real meaning of the holiday. Now I’m not saying this is an easy task and the results won’t show up for years to come but we have to keep plugging away. So go forth and keep up the good fight.