So you can imagine my complete shock and awe this morning when Cat, 7, required only three wake-up calls. She then completely dressed herself, brushed her teeth, fed her fish and without being asked, fed the dogs and prepared breakfast for herself and her sister. I was dumbfounded.

“Cat, thank you so much for everything you did this morning,” I said. “You showed tremendous responsibility and thoughtfulness. Mommy really appreciates it.”

Cat beamed at the compliment and then said, “No problem Mom. You will probably be seeing more of this. I just realized Christmas is coming soon so I need to start acting more responsible.”

Ah. That explains it. The girls know that I email Santa every Friday with a weekly status report. Cat wants to be sure that the reports leading up to Christmas are glowing. I am both pleased with her strategy and slightly disappointed in the ulterior motive. But I will take easy mornings any way I can get them, so I decided to see if Tate was on board with this new plan.

“So what do you think Tate? Are you going to start to do lots of good and responsible things so I can include them in my weekly report to Santa?” I asked.

Tate scowled and shook her head. “No Mom. Duh! If he has read any of your reports this year, we all know I am getting coal so I am not going to worry about the rest of the year. I’ll just play with all of the stuff Cat gets.”