I am....

....celebrating Christmas. So, here it is.  Our first Christmas where one of us has a truly, live in, significant other.   And, it's good.  Seriously, very good.  We planned to go to the zoo (Kids+Me+Ex), which is our family tradition when it's ridiculously nice outside on Christmas (bad weather = museum).  But, his girlfriend got off early so instead of the four of us, it turned into Kids+Me+Ex+Ex's Girlfriend+Ex's Girlfriend's Three Kids+Ex's Girlfriend's First Ex-Husband's Sister.  And it was great.  Lots of laughter, lots of intermingling of my kids (11 & 12) with the little ones (4, 6 & 8), chatting between the various adults... Must give kudos to the Denver Zoo.  I have a Family Plus membership and they let me add my ex so that we could get in with any kids that live in our household(s) and a guest could always come in free as well, plus they made up a "nanny" card for the Ex's Girlfriend so she can take the kids in the fu

...thinking. We made it through the holidays and no one lost a limb, their eyes or their temper. It was a great Christmas even though there was too much time with the ex. We do the somewhat messed up post-divorce thing of getting together as a group. This year included my ex-in-laws, my grandpa, my parents, the ex and our kids for Christmas dinner (where I rocked the lobster bisque...btw.) For all its greatness, I do think we may have reached a point where we will try and divide and conquer the holidays more. Because my house used to be "our" house he feels uncomfortable. It hasn't been strange for me to have him as a guest here. The day he moved out I painted my bedroom, cleaned everything and rearranged the furniture. There was hardly a trace that he ever lived here. He definitely always seemed like a guest in this suburban life we'd created with our kids and definitely didn't like the house so I was surprised that he shared that it was hard to come to

...contemplative. Lately my posts have started to get repetitive. I've not been very impressed with my ex-husband and his drama and bad decision filled life and have found his negative attitude and general crankiness seeping into my world. Enough of that. He will live his life. I will live mine. The kids will live with me (mostly) and they will continue to achieve and do well because I will continue to achieve and do well. So there. Done with that. That said, I have to spend more time with him in the coming days than usual. We choose to not have the kids have multiple Christmas celebrations and instead choose to just get along for their sake Christmas Eve - Christmas night. It's strange, I don't like him at all, but my kids love him very much and for them, I'll do anything. There will be no fighting, no drama, no sighing, no judging. I might even let him beat me at Scrabble.