Experiencing the Trials and Tribulations of being a Single Father One Day at a Time
Do you ever have those moments when you realize that you made the right decision? Well, the girls and I realized over the holidays that we made the right choice in getting not just cats, but these two particular cats.
I will post a good summary of our Christmas holiday later, but wanted to wish all of you a Merry Christmas, from my family to yours.
This is our family Christmas card that we sent out this year. Bill Bonner at Reign Photography took our pictures for the second consecutive year, which we were obviously very happy with. Thanks again, Bill.
Along with our Christmas card, we also sent out our Year in Review. While I have seen them, I had never done one before, and I will admit that it was quite hard to condense our amazing year down to a few bullet points. For followers of this blog, you probably read the first-hand accounts of most of these adventures, but there may be a few new ones that snuck in there.
Since most of you probably did not get these in the mail, the girls and I just wanted to wish you and your families a Merry Christmas. I hope you all have a great holiday season and will try to get in another post before we head to Great Wolf Lodge in Scottsdale for New Year’s.
Thanks for checking in on us.
Cheers!
There is no shortage of things to do around the holidays. Unfortunately for us, any activity, especially one in Tucson, takes away from preparing for the girls’ grandparents to arrive on Christmas week. Thankfully, Fort Huachuca has plenty of holiday events. And when one of the biggest of the season is literally a block from our house, there is really no excuse not to grab the girls and join in on the fun.
While developing a routine for yourself and your children is absolutely critical to being a successful single parent, anything that falls outside of that routine needs to be made into an event, to be lifted up as a spectacle. Whether it is going to Grandma’s house, the zoo, or the children’s museum, every event needs to be celebrated and made into something uniquely memorable. Christmas itself is enough to celebrate, but it is important to make all the little things that are a part of Christmas an event themselves. Here’s to the 3rd Annual Calkins Family Christmas Tree Decoration Event!
While we were eating dinner the other night, Gabriella was thumbing through one of last year’s Christmas gifts: The Disney Princess Cookbook. While debating on making Bull’s-Eye Pizza (Brave) or Ham and Cheese Biscuit Braids (Tangled) in the future, the girls simultaneously saw something that they both wanted to make. Since it was easy and we had all the ingredients, it looked like after dinner the Calkins Family would be making Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo Magic Wands.
As any parent will know, your children are always watching you and picking up things from your behavior (for better or for worse). Because of this, you always need to be on your toes to ensure that your children are picking up the right values. Sometimes you get lucky though and can show these values through your normal actions. This happened a few weeks ago when we attended back-to-back fundraisers, with my daughters learning the values of helping support others.
A couple weeks ago, Elaina’s best friend, Elora, invited Elaina and Gabriella over for a play date with her and her sister, Emma. Since we had not already planned our activity for that Saturday, the girls gladly took them up on the offer, “scheduling” a home-and-home (for all you college football fans) with her parents for this and the following weekend.
The girls got to pick dinner on Friday and they chose pizza. Since I was not about to take them back to Peter Piper Pizza so soon, we compromised on making pizzas ourselves. After a quick trip to the commissary, we were ready for our family pizza night.
So the big day finally arrived to pick up our kittens from the Pima Animal Care Center. Yes, you heard that right: plural. We ended up adopting two of them, both roommates at the center (in fact, the girls had me already calling the center before I completed my previous post). In my opinion, it could not have gone any better. Here are the first 24 hours with the newest members of our family, Merlissa, a six-month old female Tortie (Tortoiseshell)/Brown Tabby, and Aurora, a six-month old female Orange Tabby.
My girls have wanted a dog for a while and we have slowly been inching towards adopting one. They want a Chihuahua and I want a Beagle, Bassett Hound, or Labrador Retriever, so obviously we had to meet somewhere in the middle. Unfortunately, after the fifth visit to an animal shelter, they finally figured out that maybe a dog is not right for them at this time (“Dad, why is there so much barking?!?”). So, also for the fifth time, we took a stroll over to the cats, and Elaina and Gabriella met the (soon to be) newest member of our family.
Adventures in Single Dadding 