24 Days of Christmas

Goodbye, November. Hello, December! To just say that we're excited you're here seems like such an understatement. I write this post to the melody of Jack's music box playing We Wish You a Merry Christmas, quickly rewound each time it stops. And, we're on a break from Jack pretending he is Santa Claus, bringing me wonderful gifts like pretend cups of coffee and the previously mentioned music box. 

The beginning of December is the beginning of some Christmas traditions at our house. This is our second year we have enjoyed a Playmobil Advent calendar. We opened the first present this morning. It contained the mailbox in which Santa receives all the Christmas letters that boys and girls write to him. This lead to a discussion about Jack writing a letter to Santa. I asked him what he thought he was going to ask Santa to bring him. His answer? Fireworks. What???? The only time he's ever even seen fireworks was when John took him to a Sounds game last summer. Fireworks. Does pyromania run in Thorn blood or something? I flashed back to Charlie, 2, starting the bathroom on fire and all of my nephews thinking it might be a good idea to put fireworks inside a fish up at the cabin. Geez, I had to head this off right away. My response was that Santa and his elves only make toys, and fireworks are not toys, so he would have to choose something else. He informed me that he would have to think about it. 

Christmas books have long been a some of my favorites, dating back to my teaching years. I've always bought the kids at least one Christmas book every year. In years past, I have just set a box of Christmas books out and we've read them at will. This year, I wrapped each book individually, and we're going to unwrap one every evening leading up to Christmas. I think this will be a lot of fun for the boys. 

Now, I'm off to play more Santa games with Jack and hide all of the lighters before we're homeless. Happy December, everyone!