Christmas Countdown

For a week or two the kids have been letting us now how far away Christmas is. Maybe that's why we were done shopping early...

"Ten days until Santa comes."

"One week from tonight Santa comes."

"Mama, there are only four days until Christmas!"

See, there's no way Christmas was sneaking up on us this year.

We've talked about lots of other things regarding Christmas too. We've gone out to see Christmas lights...found out the kids do not count traffic on Interstate 95 or lights on inside the house as Christmas lights.

We've made cookies, most of which we've eaten, and will continue to make more until well after New Year's, I suppose. There are so many kinds I want to taste this holiday season.

We've sung and listened to Christmas carols. I watched Gracie sing at the top of her lungs at her school and listened to Tyler "pum, pum, pum" from the back seat.

We've even talked about how Santa makes his list, how to get on it and who might be on the naughty list. After scolding Gracie about something and threatening her with, "Santa's still watching, you know," she wondered why Santa doesn't have more lists.

"What if Santa had three lists...one for kids who are good and bad? Or what if he had four lists. The fourth one could be called Silly!"

If Santa has four lists...our kids are most certainly on the Silly list! They've not only kept us aware of how far away Christmas is, but Jace has written his own list...a schedule of the order we'll open our gifts. And don't worry, he checked it twice...knowing him, three times.