I share custody of my daughter with my ex husband.  So when holidays and special events come around, there's always the question, "How are we going to share the time?"  I keep my daughter the majority of the time.  Typically her father gets her on Thursday and Fridays of every week, some weeks he doesn't and some weeks he may keep her on a Saturday too.  I'm pretty flexible with the schedule.  He'll text me and say he's not going to get her and I'll say okay.  He'll text me and say he is going to get her or can she stay an extra day, and again, I'll say okay, no questions asked or anything.   I often rearrange my schedule or plans so that they won't interfere with the time, or I have to find last minute sitters when he cancels.  So when he asked if she could spend Christmas afternoon with him this year, my response was okay.  Even though he had her for Christmas last year too.  As I said in an earlier post, I try to remove myself from the situation and only think about her.  I'm not about to tell her, "No, you can't see Daddy this Christmas because you saw him last year for Christmas."

Christmas, the official holiday, is celebrated one day of the year.  But since I won't have her that one day, I decided to celebrate the spirit of Christmas throughout the month of December. Each week leading up to Christmas we did something together.  I planned a "Treat and Trimmings" party one Sunday after church for a small group of family. We trimmed the Christmas Trees, baked cookies, did Christmas crafts and listened to Christmas music.  The following week, we went to see Christmas lights in a historic neighborhood in Baltimore.  The next day we went ice skating and baked more Christmas goodies together.  My daughter likes trains, so during the day on Christmas Eve, I plan on taking her to the B&O Railroad Museum to ride the train and participate in the museum's holiday events.  Later on that afternoon we'll see the Christmas play at church and end the day with my entire family at my parent's house for our annual Christmas Eve dinner.  If she's still awake, I'll let her stay up to open a few gifts at midnight, and off to bed she'll go.  The next day she'll spend with her father.  After all of the festivities, I could probably use the down time to recharge and get ready for her return.