The Advent Calendar Incident

Every year I give great thought to advent "calendars" for my family. (I blame it on my mother. She always gave us advent calendars of some sort.)

One year it was a small tree with little ornaments to open and hang each day (my Nana assembled one like this for me when I was little).

One year it was 25 mini galvanized buckets each with a treasure, treat or note.

One year it was a candle that you burn down a little every day until Christmas.

This year my seven year old asked if we could do something different--"like one of those paper ones other people get, sometimes with chocolate in them" (I think she recalled the one her Dad gave her a recent year after returning from Germany--and it was filled with delicious German chocolate.).


I was a little sad. A little disappointed. And, well, frankly a lot relieved. You see, this is an exceptionally busy holiday season given the fact that I've started a new job that involves more hours and travel. One of those pre-made paper ones -- sure!

I left the calendars for the girls to open on the 1st after school. They were waiting for them with their sitter.

When I got home, my 7 year old said with a bit of nastiness in her voice, "Mom, I opened up all the doors."

I stood in shock.

I expected that of the 2 year old, but was shocked that my older, more mature, more patient daughter would do that. I tried really hard to just let it go. Or, maybe I should say I'm still trying (after all I've just written about it on the 15th day of December...), to let it go.

I think this will, however, be the last year of paper advent calendars -- it clearly didn't work for us.