Happy Thanksgiving! Letter to Santa

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving! We had two guests and enjoyed our traditional dinner: steak! One of our guests loves to help prepare food. He has been a guest for holidays with our family for years. As the day went on we kept crossing off things from our menu! I gave up on making pumpkin soup, he gave up making a Bernaise sauce to go with the steak and he also gave up making some bread pudding. Just as well, we had plenty of food otherwise.

Samuel does not care for beef so he had his old standard entree, chicken nuggets! He has not been as cooperative with trying new food as he was about a year ago. I need to strategize a bit. Last year a taste of soda in a cup was enough of a "reinforcer" to get him to try sampling new food. That is not the case anymore.

This is the first year that Samuel will be writing a letter to Santa with a specific request that is his own. He has been wanting an X-Box 360 for a while. We told him, "Maybe you can ask Santa for one at Christmas." Now he goes around saying, "I can't wait to get my X-Box 360 for Christmas!" Here's the problem, we are a Playstation Family! We have a PS2, a PSP, and quite a selection of games to go along. While I am thrilled that Samuel has requested something on his own, I just don't see how "Santa" could bring something that is a whole new system to deal with! We are trying to steer his request for a Wii game instead. He has been using one at occupational therapy and his brothers have tried one at a friend's house. Yes, Wii is a new system, but one that the entire family could get some use out of. (I'd love to try Wii Fit!)

Life is going along at our house quite well. I am as busy as ever. I rarely have a free moment anymore. I am stealing time that should be used for other things around my house to even do this writing. It's a little frustrating sometimes, but this shall pass. Even with all the frustrations and challenges I am happy with how we are all doing.

I am not at all in the Christmas spirit yet, which I suppose is okay. After all, it's not Christmas yet! We are enjoying our new Advent wreath and two Advent Calendars; one given to us by my oldest son's godparents and the other from my parents. It is still somewhat of a novelty for me to keep up with all the feasts and celebrations that the Catholic religion has. I didn't really grow up with these things being celebrated in my home. I gather all the kids together in the morning and we talk about feast days as we go over the calendar each day.

I am so grateful for the Personal Attendant help that Samuel has. The two people who help us out are doing well with Samuel. In between the times that I do his school work they keep him busy and out of trouble. It's really great to know that I don't have to worry about Samuel sneaking food or sneaking time on the computer. We still have a ways to go teaching Samuel to be more independent in using his free time appropriately. The visual schedule we use will help us teach him.

I have made a renewed effort to properly use reinforcers with Samuel. Using them properly makes his school work sessions so much calmer. As I prepare his schedule I prepare a token board. If I know that he will be agreeable to the work then I will use "high 5's" as reinforcers. Then for the subjects that he is not so agreeable I use "sweet snack" (Skittles ) or perhaps a "healthy snack" (raisins or peanuts) , or a "crunchy snack" (pretzels or a cereal bar). I want to move beyond just food reinforcers. There are some books he likes to look at, so I should have a supply of them ready for him to look at after he "works".

I hope everyone is enjoying preparing for Christmas! My thoughts and prayers this evening go out to a family I know whose son is scheduled for surgery tomorrow.