Santa Claus is considering coal in a stocking this year...

Little Miss Madmad...has been particularly....uhmm.....trying this year...  In particular there are just some days I want to throw my hands in the air and give up.  Yell out that I'm DONE!  Stomp my feet and throw a temper tantrum of my own making...

And the issues all escalated since August - when we returned from our summer break.  And just last night I discovered a sneaky rotton hidden deed by the 8 year old that sent me over the top and tumbling down at breakneck speed.

It actually kind of reminded me of when my sister Sarah and I found about 30 buckets of cool whip in the downstairs refrigerator and each wanted to eat one...only once you've actually dipped your fingers into a bucket of cool whip a few times thats really all the cool whip you can eat...only, we KNEW how much trouble we'd be in if we didn't finish those buckets and toss them before mom found out so we sat down in the basement in our pajamas and each finished an entire bucket of cool whip on our own. 

I think we were sick for days.

BUT...the fact remains that had my mom caught us she probably would have felt much like I did last night...

And so after some prime time drama occuring in our home complete with tears and early bedtimes and the whole shebang...

We had a big talk this morning after breakfast about what had gone wrong in our happy little family.  At first it started like this... (paraphrased to keep this shorter than a novel)

Madmad:  YOU sent me to bed early and took my stuffies and I didn't even get to eat my chocolate from my advent calendar!
Me:  That is the most selfish thing I've ever heard...did you stop to think about how your actions affected me, or Bella or your dad?

Stare off...

And we talk for an hour or so...and after sending her up to her room about 20 minutes later I got a letter thrown down the stairwell...drifting down like a letter from heaven.  (hardly)  This letter was all  about how when St. Niklaus comes tomorrow (December 6th - a German tradition) she deserves for him to leave her the willow switch and not the candies and nuts.

I'm inclined to agree...

And then when I got up to my bed I found this gem...

Yep - she even has the "response with arrow" for me to write back to her.

So, while St. Niklaus WILL probably leave her a willow switch tomorrow night.  I'm also considering a strongly worded suggestion to Santa Claus for a lump of coal in a certain stocking this year.

Its better than some alternatives.