Dear Dr. Laura,

A recent call where you told a listener to get up fifteen minutes earlier so she and her husband could make time to "be together" made me smile, as I thought of how my husband and I created extra time.

After reading your book, "The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands", I was able to turn my marriage in to what I had always dreamed a marriage would be and included in that was a far more active sex life. However, we had young children and my husband's work schedule was crazy, so finding time between chasing toddlers, making meals, trying to maintain the house, and sleeping was difficult.

One December, we found ourselves together during the day and "in the mood." I am not sure who came up with the idea, but… we set the kids up in the living room with a short Christmas movie and told them Mom and Dad needed to have a "Meeting with Santa" and report on how good they had been. We fleshed the story out a bit, telling them Santa would be using his magic snow globe and watching them during our meeting, so they better be good so Santa could see. The kids were very serious about the whole thing. They sat there and promised they'd be good. My husband and I chuckled as we slinked off back to our room for our "meeting." When our meeting concluded and we came out with the North Pole report, the kids were so excited we had talked to Santa, and asked if he saw how good they had been!

Since then, if during the day, or when the kids are not asleep and we are in the mood again, it’s time for a meeting with Santa. It could be 364 days before Christmas or one day before...they never know when Santa needs his random reports. But each time he does, the kids behave like little angels, anxiously awaiting the report from the North Pole.

I am not sure how many more years Santa will need his random reports...or how long until our kids start to become more curious about our meetings, but for now, it works. My husband and I laugh at the time when our kids will figure out what our meetings consisted of.  I just hope they will be able to enjoy the "magic" of that holiday season year round with their spouses too! (...many, many, years in the future!)

Thank you for all that you do. You are the mother I never had. Thanks for your daily advice and reminders and words of encouragement to continue to be my husband's girlfriend and my kids' mom. There is no better job in the world!

Sincerely,

Carly