Props to the Offspring

Here are a few things I'm feeling fiercely proud of right now:

• Sam just won 3 out of 4 matches in his first wrestling tournament of the year. He is really focused during the wrestling season and I'm glad for him to see some results.
  
• Our dishwasher is not working, and last night, when we realized the sad truth, Sara and Evan voluntarily organized a dish-washing line and worked like a couple of professionals to get the dishes washed, rinsed and dried in record time. They took it on like a project and there was this wonderful energy and sense of shared purpose. It was just dishes, but it was a seriously cool moment.
  
• My kids always help bring stuff in from the car. All I have to do is come in the house and say "A little grocery help, please," and every one of them will get their shoes on and come help me. They also help put it all away. Really.
  
• They have put up with me teaching seminary (a daily scripture study class for teenagers that meets in our home at 5:50 AM-nope, not a typo) for 6+ years. This means that I'm often tired, I always have a lesson to prepare, and the family room usually looks more like a classroom than anything else. Yet, they still help me set up the chairs and tolerate me taking 20 minute mini-naps at odd times.
• They love Christmas and I found out today that they feel a certain family pride in the fact that I collect Nativity sets and have over 30 of them displayed around the house. Today they were joking that next I'll find a way to display a nativity on the dog. Hmm, I'll have to think about that one.
  
• They will gather around me to sing Christmas songs together while I plink badly on the piano for accompaniment.

I'm feeling very, very lucky as a parent right now. These feelings have come, most ironically, after a freakishly busy week filled with a lot of frustrations and opposition. Sometimes it really is in the crucible of challenge that true character is revealed. I'm grateful for the people my kids have become. As I said in my Christmas letter this year, they show every evidence of actually surviving my continued attempts at parenting. Amazing.