Happy birthday to me!

Last week was my birthday, and Amy spent lots of time making me two cards. She wrote the text of the card on the computer so she could really perfect it. Then she included it on one hand-drawn card and one she drew on the computer. These are most definitely my favorite kind of presents!

Traditions

Over Christmas, I asked Reed what his favorite Christmas traditions were. He said "Do we have any traditions?" What? We have about a million traditions for Christmas! I guess Reed just didn't connect the word "traditions" to the things that we do together every year to celebrate the holidays.

Let me think...

Christmas PJs!

• Putting the tree up the day after Thanksgiving
• Special new ornaments each year for the kids – this year Reed's was a flag football guy and Amy's was a tae kwon do girl
• New Christmas pajamas for everyone
• Driving around the neighborhood to see Christmas lights
• Family cookie day
• Visiting Santa
• Building gingerbread houses
• Baking cookies for Santa and leaving out carrots for the reindeer
• Christmas Eve Eve dinner with our family
• Christmas Eve gathering with the Wenzells
• Going to Poppy's church for Christmas Eve services
• Christmas morning breakfast with our family
• Christmas dinner with the larger family, always with Broccoli Casserole

And this is probably only a partial list! Anyway, I think he gets it now.

The apple didn't fall far from the tree

Over the holidays, Amy orchestrated a shopping trip for herself with Aly, Nikki AtLee and Nikki Mitchell. This is a girl who's (mostly) not afraid to ask for what she wants, so she asked for this trip and made it happen. Girls shopping day: set.

In the week leading up to the big day, she was eagerly planning how things would go down. She used the new iPod Touch she got for Christmas to painstakingly create this shopping list:

Her OCD mother couldn't be more proud. I can only imagine how much time she spent typing this out, getting it lined up right, thinking things through. I love it!

I know she gets these traits from me, but I swear I wasn't this organized when I was a kid. That only truly kicked in when I was an adult, I think. So is it more nature or nurture? Is she hard-wired to be organized, or did she learn from our examples, or maybe it's a combination of both?

Amy always wants to know exactly how things are going to go down. What time are we leaving? How long will it take to get there? Who's going to be there? How long will we stay? When I get home, do I have time to read before bed? I guess it's how she helps order her world, where things are so often completely out of her control.

I know these are skills that will serve her well!

So funny

The other day I was sorting laundry, as I've been known to do since I love to have a good time. Amy was getting dressed and came in to ask "Mom, are you still accepting laundry?"

Yes, indeed, I am still accepting laundry. On a continuing basis. :)