Sunday Update: Reading, Sports, Sleep

Nora doing some book deconstruction

This week went fast.  It started with my traditional January brutal general illness, which went straight to my head and necessitated a sick day on Monday.  On Friday I had my first RACHEL FRIDAY of my new 5 day a week childcare situation.  It was a 100% Rachel day - Gym with my gym buddy, breakfast with a friend, haircut, manicure, quick beer with Andy and home by kid pick up. (This is not a forever thing, this is just a January thing.  I do have to work fulltime to afford childcare fulltime)

Reading

I know I'm the last person to read The Measure but I am really enjoying it.

I failed to listen to my audiobook of Uptime

I think I would have enjoyed it, but oh well, back to the TBR.  One of the insights I did gain from the first 5 minutes of the audiobook was that when you ask someone "When were you most productive? When did you have insight into your work?" The answer is basically never "oh when I was checking my email or doing 100 messages on teams" and yet I seem to spend my whole day doing both those terrible habits.

I then downloaded an audio copy of Super Communicators:

I haven't started listening to this but I listened to an interview with Charles Duhigg on Before Breakfast and thought it was super interesting and also I am not great at communicating with people so this would be a good book to read.  Or listen to.  

I haven't really found a good audiobook listening time, I don't have long walks, I don't have time to prep food (or I'm usually listening to kids while cooking), I'm usually chatting with Andy when we are cleaning up the house after dinner.  Maybe I should do audio books in the mornings while hanging out with babies?  Usually my head doesn't work then because I am so tired, and also it's so much baby.  Something to consider.

Sports

• Monday
• 10 Minute Meditation
  
  
• Tuesday
• 30 Minute Full Body Strength 
• 10 Minute Stretch
• 90 Minutes Bouldering @ climbing gym with a friend
  
  
• Wednesday
• 30 Minute Pop Ride 
  
  
• Thursday
• 20 Minute Lower Body Strength
• 10 Minute Core Strength 
• 5 Minute Stretch
• 20 Minute "Lane Break" ride
• 5 Minute Cooldown
• 10 Minute Focus Flow - Back
• 10 Minute Meditation
  
  
• Friday
• 90 Minute Gym workout with Gym Buddy ("Lower Body")
  
  
• Saturday
• 30 Minute HIIT and Hills with Robin Arzon
• 10 Minute Cool Down & Stretch
  
  
• Sunday
• 15 Minute Stretch & Foam Roll

Sleep

I've averaged 7.5 hours of sleep a night, however this includes 8.5 hours on Monday, and then a 6 and a 6.5 hour night later in the week.  Yesterday the babies slept till 5:45am and I was shocked to wake up without babies crying at 5:40 (they were up 5 minutes later, but it's so nice to wake up to silence) 

 I am looking forward to someday when the 5:30 time is my own. While I am a morning person I am *not* a morning person when those mornings can be snatched by waking up childrens.

Meal Plan

We are carrying on with our four days a week set menu.

Monday: Soup (tomato for the kids, slow cooker tortilla soup for us)

Tuesday: Pasta (and slow cooker meatballs)

Wednesday: Fish Fingers & Chips

Thursday: Gnocchi and vegetable tray bake

It's working... fine.  It's a bit boring.

Misc Good things (Gratitude since I've been a bit grumpy):

• The days are somewhat noticeably longer - it's not pitch black by 5pm.  
• I'm still doing my Peloton Streak, which is kind of fun, but included some not very good meditation on Friday.  
• I went out to dinner with a group of mums who had first babies the same time I did and we did a prenatal class together.  The class was rubbish, the friendship is A+
• Andy bought a new bin for the kitchen.  I can't find the post, but a long time ago he said we needed a new bin and I said "go for it!" and now a long time later we have a new bin and I didn't have to order it or think about it.
• We bought a new toaster this week because a two slice toaster isn't cutting it for our family of 6
• We bought a new second-hand kids high chair this week so we now have 3/4 of the high chairs we need for our family
• I ordered myself a Shark hair drier as part of birthday week and I am excited to see how it dries my hair tomorrow!
• I had a great long gym session with my gym buddy
• Audrey is so close to walking
• Nora says "thank you" and it is cute
• I took Lilah to a play date without any other kids
• I went climbing with a friend one evening

Although those are all great things from this week I have had a pretty mixed week, so I am not trying to sugar coat anything here.  But it's Sunday night, the kids are asleep, and I am about to go to some stretching and then go to sleep myself, so it's pretty easy to feel positive.

There is a reason I don't write these posts at 5:30am.

What's your highlight of the week?

Sunday Update: Reading, Sports, Sleep (and a great weekend)

We have had a great weekend.  I know that might sound like bragging, but we have not had a lot of *great* weekends.  We have recently survived a lot of weekends.  It was cool to enjoy one.

On Saturday morning, Andy went out for a swim and I had all four kids at home and IT WAS FINE! The house was a mess when he got back, but it was a fine mess.  Yay!  Then we fed the kids a snack and walked down to the library for LEGO CLUB.  Our local library does a Saturday lego day where kids can just do lots of lego together. Isaac made a Pool and Cafe and Trap lego, and labeled it as such, but he spelled "trap" as "chrap".  On his label. I asked if he wanted to spell it correctly and he said "No, I'll keep it that way because it's mostly for kids to read".  One of his friends met us at lego club and then we got a sandwich at a cafe before walking home.

In the afternoon I went to the shop with the babies in the pram, dropped off some baby stuff to a neighbour, and then ate pizza for dinner.  I went to bed too late because I started a new book I wanted to read more, and I also finished downstairs craft storage improvement project!

Before - the white drawers have all the kids art stuff:

After: Yes, we finally own an IKEA Trofast.  It works much better.

On Sunday morning we decided to try kids parkrun - a free 2k race for kids.  We've never been before and it was very cold but the kids did great.  Andy pushed babies and I ran with lilah. 

After parkrun we went out for breakfast. At a cafe!  The cafe didn't have a kids menu so we ordered 3 english breakfasts (bacon, sausage, egg, tomato, mushroom, toast, baked beans) and split them amongst all of us.  The babies mostly had toast, beans, and eggs.  The kids love sausage.  I ate all the tomatoes.  

The babies then had a great nap at home and I had two hours of Rachel time while Andy watched kids.  I Mostly did exercise.  When the babies got up we decided to go to the climbing gym where the kids ran around and climbed for an hour and the babies lived their best life ever.

 

After climbing we had a super quick dinner and all kids were asleep by 7.   Amazing.

Reading:

I finished The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year and it was so fun.  Read this book! 

I started reading The Measure and it's very compelling so far.  What an interesting thought experiment:

Sports:

• Monday
• 30 Minute Upper Body with Ben Alldis (The Stronger You Program on Peloton)
  
  
• Tuesday
• 45 Minute workout with gym buddy (dumb 9am meeting ruined my hour session!)
• 90 Minute really hard hot yoga with a friend
  
  
• Wednesday
  
• 30 Minute Full Body with Ben Alldis (The Stronger You Program on Peloton)
  
  
• Thursday
• 30 Minute Feel Good Ride with Ally Love
  
  
• Friday
• 10 Minute Meditation with Kirstin McGee
  
  
• Saturday
• 10 Minute Meditation with Kirstin McGee
  
  
• Sunday
• 2k "run" with Lilah
• 20 Minute Lower Body with Ben Alldis  (The Stronger You Program on Peloton)
• 30 Minute Upper Body with Ben Alldis (The Stronger You Program on Peloton)
• 5 Minute Upper Body Stretch with Ben Alldis (The Stronger You Program on Peloton)

I was doing a 4 week course (The Stronger You) but I missed 2 days of week 3.  Now I'm in week 4 and I will finish it, but someday I would like to do a Peloton course without missing any days.  And, as per the lovely Julie, meditation does "Count" and my streak therefore continues.  I think meditation might actually be good for me too.

Sleep

Ugh.  Not good.  I have averaged 6.9 hours this week.  Babies have been waking up at 5am again.  Last night I woke up for an hour between 2 and 3 and couldn't sleep.  I keep going to bed late because honestly, I'm enjoying my evening hours and I like writing blogs or talking to friends or reading or hanging out with Andy.  We usually finish our tidying by 7:30 but 2 hours doesn't feel like a huge amount of time to fit EVERYTHING ELSE into.  Anyways, I am hoping more excercise will = more sleep next week.  I need above 7 hours.

Other stuff

I am really loving Kae's goals posts over here.  I love her tracking systems and I have decided I might move a bit more digital with my tracking!  My time log is digital and I haven't yet bought any 2024 planners so watch this space.

Laura Vanderkams "Before Breakfast" podcast "A Confused Mind Says No" was super interesting.  It made me think a lot about making super specific offers, especially in work.  "What can I do to help?" is less good than "here is what I can do to help".  

Lisa Woodruff's Organize 365 podcast "My Household Manager Predictions" was super interesting.  Especially the part about our crafted realities - that we are all basically creating our realities now with what we consume and that we need to be more mindful of our consumption.  Also that AI is not going to help us at home anytime soon.  I love how Lisa thinks.

That's my week.  How was yours?

A few recent problems and a few recent solutions and one or two solution-less problems

Problem: Kid Shoes/Coats/Jackets/Hats/Gloves (and also mine)

I know, this is a massive category.  But this minor improvement is specifically the hallway coats/shoes/jackets/hats/gloves.  We use a Kallax with drawers for the big kids shoes and winter stuff, but now that the babies wear shoes I needed a place for baby shoes (and hats).  I also didn't have a good place for my own hat and gloves and felt like I had stuff everywhere. 

Solution: Shoe rack

This is hanging in our entryway.  The bottom row is Lilah's - mittens, scarf, gloves and hat.  Same for Isaac.  Baby hats and 1 pair of baby waterproof trousers (because we only have 1) are in the middle row.  My hat, gloves, and sunglasses are second from top, and the kids knee and elbow pads are on the top row.

I let the kids each keep only 2 hats and 2 pairs of cheap gloves, plus their winter gloves, and 1 scarf. Lilah had 4 hats and Isaac had 3 scarves.  The extra scarves are packed away in the past&future clothing boxes and the kids can switch out someday, if they want.  

I also sorted the kids socks and got rid of every pair that didn't fit or was broken/stretched out.  The only problem with the kid sock system is that the kids and I are the only ones who know whose socks are whose.  

My coats/jackets/waterproofs are on the rail.  Isaac's jackets and baby jackets are on the top hook, and lilah's coat & jacket are on the bottom hook.  The kids socks are in the top drawers of the kallax.  The baby shoes and socks are in the right drawer.

Baby slippers and wellies are in the left drawer.  Kids shoes are in the basket.  I know this will have to change again once the babies shoes don't fit in one half sized drawer... but we are not there yet.  

I spend a lot less time looking for stuff now.

Result: A+

Problem: Mealtimes

We started having pretty bad meal times a few months ago.  Lots of complaining about food, lots of refusing food, lots of stress and grumps.  I'm not sure what started the downhill slide, but we found ourselves downhill. There were arguments over whether making jacket potatoes was too ambitious of a dinner.  Andy and I would stare at the calendar during meal planning with almost active dread at the idea of cooking anything. It wasn't working.

Solution: Repeating Menu
I decided it was important to me that kids enjoy food and meal times without fights.  This was more important than me eating food I particularly like.  For the month of January we are eating the following:

Monday:  Soup, bread, and cheese (Tomato soup for the kids)

Tuesday: Jacket Potatoes (with beans and cheese for the kids, potentially chili or tuna for adults)

Wednesday: Pasta (with cheese for the kids, and another sauce or veg if I can for us)

Thursday: Tray bake (potatoes and sausage or chicken and potato or another tray bake)

Friday is usually Macaroni and Cheese or Pizza - except this week when we are having chocolate chip waffles (at the kids request).

Sunday we will try to make something that gives us some leftovers for the week.

Also, I am trying to eat veg with every meal.  Others don't have to eat veg.  I buy prepackaged green beans and broccoli and steam them.  It's working ok.

Result: A- (Because I will get bored)

Problem: British Bathrooms don't have plugs

Okay, this one doesn't have a solution.  WTF British bathrooms??!  They say it's a electrical risk to have plugs in a bathroom but I do not understand where I am supposed to dry my hair.  

Solution: Buy a better hair drier and dry my hair in my room

I've set up a hair drying "station" in my bedroom but I don't want to dry my hair in my bedroom.  The lighting is not good, and it's next to the baby room so I can't really do it at night. I also feel like the bathroom is where a hair dryer goes.  

Also, my hair drier was from a free pile at work 6 years ago, and I'm wondering whether it's time for me to buy a real hair drier.  Is a fancy hair drier worth it? Will my hair look like the photos if I get a Shark speedstyle?

Result: B- (because this isn't really a solution, it's just a different idea)

Problem: I don't take vitamins and I should.

Solution: I should take vitamins

Result: F.  This is not a solution.  I need to figure out a way to remember to take vitamins.

Do you have any recent problems and solution wins?  Do you remember to take vitamins?

2025 Year in Preview (optimistic future thinking)

I'm looking forward to 2025.  There are a few things that make 2025 particularly exciting.  I am entering what Lisa Woodruff would see as a mega-golden window.  Namely:

I am turning 40! I am pretty excited about this.  I think men love being 30, but I think I will love being 40.  When I used to race Triathlon it was always the Women-40 category that were crazy fit.  I understand why now - they don't have time to mess about.  They were machines and it was amazing to see.

I am done having kids and done being pregnant.  I was pregnant or nursing babies the following years of my 30s: 33, 34, 35, 36, 38, 39.  This is probably why I made most of my new mountain biking friends when I was 37.  That's a lot of years spent doing very small baby life.  I'm excited to be able to work on my own health and fitness without thinking there is a baby around the corner. Of course there is still menopause and life around the corner, but hopefully I am fully done with diastasis at least.

It's our 10 year wedding anniversary this year.  It's 15 years since we met.  That's a lot of years!

This year Lilah is starting school, which means 50% of my kids will be in full time education.

All this plays into some thoughts on goals for this year.  I have a lot of "Personal" goals this year.  Andy is also turning 40 this year, so this is OUR YEAR OF 40!  as such, we have added a new budget line item for "Andy and Rachel Fun" this year and are planning 12 adventures.  We haven't planned all of them but have the following

• Day off work to go mountain biking
• Day off work to go shopping in town and get lunch (also part of wardrobe upgrade project)
• Go to a fancy restaurant and try a tasting menu
• Walk up a local mountain
• Visit a local brewery
• Go climbing with friends in the evening and then get a beer 
• See a show (or a film)

I am also hoping this is the year I start to make my mark professionally.  I got a promotion in work last year, but the new job title is basically "What you were doing is great, keep going"! So, what am I doing? What do I want to be doing?  What should I be doing?  I don't know if this is how it works in other jobs, but I have been given the chance to craft my speciality going forward and I want to use this chance to do it before the tides of corporate change send me on a direction possibly not of my choosing.

What are you excited for this year?  Is it a personal year? professional year? DO you have any milestone birthdays? Another year? In with the new year same as the old year?

Sunday Update: Reading, Sports, Sleep (Welcome to the the new year, same as the old year)

Two weeks of school holidays is a lot of school holidays!  This week did not have Christmas or the BUILDUP TO CHRISTMAS yet for whatever reason lots of stuff was closed.  In some ways the second week of school holidays (with 1 year old twins) remind me of Covid times.  All the family are together - yay - but there are no play groups on, the library is shut, and everyone is walking around aimlessly outside when it is not raining.  

I'll have to think of a better answer to "How was your Christmas?" before I start work tomorrow, because the above definitely isn't good enough.

I have also been really optimistic on my blog posting ability over new year:

As you are surely aware, I do not write drafts, or edit my posts.  Or spellcheck, or proofread, or do anything that might make my corner of the internet legible or enjoyable to read.  So these posts are just things I tried to write before being interrupted by kids or general life.  At some point, I will join the bandwagon in goals, gratitude, and share how excited I (sometimes) am for 2025.

Onwards!

Reading

Finally reading and enjoying The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year by Ally Carter

How much do I love books with short chapters?  Very.

Sports

I go back and forth on whether a streak is a good idea or a bad idea.  I'm on a 3 week Peloton streak right now, but a few of those days are just meditation.  However - meditating is a good idea. So maybe a streak is good, even if it includes meditating, because meditating is good?  

Also, I find Peloton good because it covers strength and riding and yoga and stretching and basically everything that is good for me, so I think trying for a streak of doing something good for me for at least 5 minutes every day is probably worthwhile.

• Monday
• 20 Minute Full Body Strength with Ben Alldis
• 10 Minute Full Body Stretch with Ben Alldis
  
  
• Tuesday
• 10 Minute Hannukah Meditation with Anna Greenberg (this one was weird)
  
  
• Wednesday
• 10 Minute Calming Meditation with Kirstin McGee
  
  
• Thursday
• 15 Minute Lower Body Strength with Ben Alldis
• 5 Minute Core with Ben Alldis
• 5 Minute Lower Body Stretch with Ben Alldis
• 10 Minute New Years Day meditation with Kirstin McGee
  
  
• Friday
• 20 Minute Full Body Strength with Ben Alldis
• 10 Minute Full Body Stretch with Ben Alldis
  
  
• Saturday
• 5 Minute Meditation with Kirstin McGee
  
  
• Sunday
• 30 Minute Reset Ride with Denis Morton
• 30 Minute Reset (Yoga) with Denis Morton

Next week I am back in work, and we have childcare.  And a new nanny starting 2 days a week.  It is going to be a busy week but I am really hoping it's going to be an adjustment to having more free/personal time.  I love and miss routine.

Sleep

My average so far this week is 6.75 hours per night, which is probably why I don't feel wonderful as I write this.  Reasons are good and less good - I stayed up and shared a bottle of wine with Andy on NYE, which meant that I had trouble falling asleep (I was so sad to hear the midnight fireworks, I wanted to be so asleep at midnight).  I took the big kids to a friend's house for a sleepover which meant they fell asleep late and I stayed up late chatting with friends.  And for whatever reason, one of the kiddos was up twice this week between midnight and 2 telling me "they were not tired".  Funny enough, we were all very tired the next day.  Babies have mostly been sleeping to or just past 6am (except one 5:30 wake up) 

That's a wrap on Christmas Holiday 2024.  In 2023 I was so looking forward to 2024, because I wouldn't have newborn twins.  I am already excited for 2025, because holidays with 14 month old twins are probably going to be way more fun than holidays with 14 month old twins.

Sunday Update: Reading, Sports, Sleep (and some photos!)

I give myself a 6.5/10 for this week.  It had some good stuff, some nice stuff, and a LOT of kid stuff (Time log notes that I did 77 hours of active parenting this week, and 53 hours of sleep, which still leaves 38 hours of other things in a week.  But... I like slightly more other things).  Also this is the weird thing about time, that I had a FULL TIME JOB of time left over after watching kids and sleeping.  It's weird that a full time job is considered a big deal and yet 40 hours a week can disappear without me even noticing it.

As I keep saying - life is going to be so fun someday!  All these kids will be great someday!  But right now, a week off school and a week off nursery and a week where lots of stuff is closed = a long week.  That said, we did have fun things, of course.  Christmas was pretty nice.  We stayed up late (7:15pm!) playing board games (Poop Bingo) with the big kids.  The babies are solidly on one nap a day, which has sometimes lasted up to 3 hours.  We can leave the house in the morning (or have to leave the house in the morning, whether we want to or not).  It didn't rain.  It was cold and foggy though:

Reading

Very slowly reading The Dead Romantics still.  I got my copy of The Most Wonderful Crime of The Year on Libby and downloaded it so I need to get reading.

Andy and I started watching A Man on the Inside which is taking some reading time, but it only has 8 episodes so we will probably finish before the new year.  Enjoying so far.  Ted Danson is great, always.

Sports

I am still making a lot of effort to make sports time, although I am tired and unfocused and mostly doing it for the "streak" at this point.  Which is dumb, but not exercising is also dumb right?

Also, I donated blood on Christmas eve, in the morning.  I made sure to get my exercise in before I donated, but I think bodies and muscles need blood (note: I am not a doctor) because I have been way more easily fatigued since donating blood.  I knew I would be tired, but I'm a bit surprised on how long its lasted.  But also, my life might just be tiring.  

One of my life goals is to donate the same number of pints of blood as my age.  Women can only donate 3 times a year, and I calculated that I'll catch up to my age when I'm 55 if I'm able to keep donating at that rate.  

Anyways:

• Monday
• 30 Minute Holiday ride with Robin Arzon
• 20 Minute Pilates with Kirstin McGee
• Tuesday
• 30 Minute Sundays with Love with Ally Love
• 10 Minute Lower Body Stretch with Matty Maggiacomo
• Wednesday
• 15 Minute Lower Body Strength with Ben Alldis
• 5 Minute Core with Ben Alldis
• 15 Minute Pop Ride with Ben Alldis
• 5 Minute Lower Body Stretch with Ben Alldis
• Thursday 
• 20 Minute Full Body Strength with Ben Alldis
• 10 Minute Full Body Stretch with Ben Alldis
• 1 hour walk in lame weather with sad babies
• Friday
• 20 Minute Pop Ride with Tudne Oyeneyin
• 5 Minute Post Ride Stretch with Ben Alldis
• Saturday
• 20 Minute Upper Body Strength with Ben Alldis
• 10 minute Postnatal Core with Emma Lovewell
• 5 Minute Upper Body Stretch with Ben Alldis

I haven't really got a regular time to exercise.  Options are:

Morning.  Babies are generally sleeping or at least in bed until 6:15.  But... i am so tired.  Also excercie in the morning makes me hungry and tired all day

Midday (during baby nap).  Probably the best for energy levels, and I always feel great after, but it ifeels like the only hour of the day where one can accomplish anything in household management (Laundry, putting clothes away, writing a blog post, updating budget, Doing dishes, sorting kids toys, putting things back where they belong, writing emails... all of it.  Also I share this time with Andy and babies only nap a guaranteed 60 minutes (usually at least 90) but even if we split the time 50/50 (because one of us needs to be watching big kids) it's just not a lot of time

Evening Everyone is generally asleep by 7:30pm and I can theoretically do sport from 8-9 every evening but it's really hard to motivate myself.  I do motivate myself, but it's not the most inspired workouts ever.

I am hoping when I start work again (which is the 6th of Jan - Christmas breaks from school are LONG!) I can either do my sport in the mornings or at my lunch break. A day of work takes far less energy than a day of watching kids.  Until then, moderately consistant home exercise is probably good enough.

Sleep

This morning I slept until nearly 6:30am which a massive sleep for me.  I did wake up at 5:30 as usual, but decided to close my eyes for a few minutes and opened them with Andy sorting the babies at 6:30 and the big kids still asleep.  Miracle!  My average is 7.75 for the week, which has to be a recent high for me.  Not getting up in the morning to do anything = more sleep.  But also, less me time.

Some photos

Today during baby nap, instead of exercise, and while the big kids watched the Grinch (the animated one, a Christmas favourite now), I sewed Isaac's ripped jacket hood back together.  I don't like sewing or fixing kid stuff, but it's getting cold and I'm tired of seeing this broken jacket on the to-do list, and also I couldn't be bothered to drive it to our local sewing lady to fix.  So, TA DA:

It's not sewn particularly well well, but it is attached! Isaac said he doesn't mind the white thread showing.  I think my third grade sewing class skills really shine here.

In December Andy and I ordered new socks from Stance.  I really like Stance socks.  New socks are cozy. Rainbow socks are great.  I like my socks:

That's all for this week.  I hope you had a great Christmas (if that's your holiday jam) and otherwise if you have a bunch of kids at home and no childcare then please know I SEE YOU.

Contentious Christmas Conundrum - Santa

We have never done "Santa" before.  I always figured other people were making a bigger deal of Santa than needed, and I was just being so cool about Mr. S that my kids figured out it wasn't a big deal. My six year old has always been delightfully unaware.  

Case in point: when Isaac turned 3 he really really wanted grapes and Banana for Christmas.  He opened his grapes and banana with glee, then took it to the kitchen to eat it and forgot about the rest of the toys.

When Lilah turned 3, she had a wish list that included "A giant dolls house, a scooter, two chocolate cakes, dolls"

For me, Santa was NBD (no big deal) because growing up I celebrated Hanukkah and not Christmas, so all Christian things (Santa included) were not for us.  We never had an opinion on the reality of Santa, because we had eight nights of presents to look forward to, so dudes coming down other people's chimneys were not particularly interesting.

I resolved that we weren't going to be a Santa family.  We have a Christmas tree (very little this year, because twins). 

Santa seemed like extra effort I didn't want to go to, and neither did my husband.  Do you have to write "to kid, love Santa" on a card?? Do some presents come from parents and some from Santa?  Do we have to hype up Santa?

It turns out, we do not have to hype up Santa, or do anything Santa, to bring the magic of Santa to live.  Although Andy did sprinkle some toast crumbs around the fire place (to look like soot) and I did throw the reindeer food in the compost (It got eaten!).

As we put out the presents I asked Andy if we needed to write "From Santa' on one. "no" he said "kids don't read labels, and they don't care"

And it's true! They don't' care! they saw a bunch of presents and thought Santa had come.  Maybe I'm going down a path of chaos and lies, but it's cute.  And low effort.  And I guess we are a Santa house now.

How Santa is your house?  Am I telling lies to my kids such that they will never trust me again or am I bringing the magic to life?  Or am I teaching them that they inferred "Santa" and it wasn't my construction at all, and perhaps giving them an early lesson in perception bias?  Or, perhaps more likely, am I overthinking it all?