christmas traditions: part 3 of a 1 part series

i seriously didn't intend to start writing this much about christmas, but maybe a topical assignment was just the thing i needed to jump-start me back into this blog.

one of the most important christmas traditions in our house is not one of my favorites--but it's still one of the most important.

as most of you know, we have a split household. princess lives with us half the time, and with her mom half the time. the three of us (me, J, and princess's mom) work very, very hard to ensure that princess has a seamless transition between households. we share duties with regard to her activities, we communicate, we modify the visitation schedule liberally to accommodate each other's activities, family functions, and princess's needs. which is not to say that there aren't times that we argue, but we try to never let princess see it. ever.

even though they split up when princess was only 2 years old, she has a hard time with her parents being divorced. her 1st grade teacher actually brought this up a few months ago at parent/teacher conferences, and we were all astonished since the three of us are the MODEL of a successful co-parenting situation. but when you think about it, it makes sense that because she sees us all getting along so well that it would make perfect sense that Mommy and Daddy and Stepmommy and Princess and Kitten should all just live in one house together. i think if she saw J and her mom actually fighting, it would ironically be easier for her to grasp.

at any rate, as with any divorced household, holidays have to be split. with princess, every year one parent has her for christmas eve and morning, and the other parent gets her on christmas morning and has her christmas day.

ever since my first christmas with J, we've had a tradition where Princess's mom comes over on Christmas morning after we've exchanged gifts, either to pick up or drop off Princess, and has breakfast with us.

i'm not gonna kid you. do i want to have breakfast on christmas morning with my husband's ex-wife every year? yeah, not really. i mean, i like the woman, but christmas morning is a very intimate family time. but you should see the joy that princess gets from being able to share her excitement over this or that gift from Santa with both her parents for an hour or so on Christmas morning.

and that is what i feel is really the spirit of Christmas. setting everything else aside and giving your loved ones joy. not stuff, but joy.

and with that, i will step down from my tinsel-trimmed soapbox.