The Annual Event Calendar

Every year, our magically enthusiastic and celebratory friends drop an Advent Calendar off on our doorstep so that the children can count down the days to Christmas with the daily ritual of opening a present.
With an uncharacteristic show of civility, Max Clara and Zoe lined up to pick strings and the one with the longest string was to kick the tradition off by opening the first present. The rules of engagement were discussed and happily received. "YES WE KNOW MOMMY". I explained that each child would take turns opening a gift, one per day and that there would be no trading. And if there were going to be tears by onlookers, they had to be silent tears with no vocal accompaniment. Or if they were feeling exceedingly sad, they could simply remove themselves from the situation and maintain a comfortable distance from me, of oh...say.... 5,000 nautical miles.

So it was with great optimism that I kicked off the Advent Calendar tradition and already civility has been cast aside and replaced by torment. As I sit here and write on the first day (Clara's Day), Zoe has spilled her body all over the floor in a puddle of tears, Max is wailing & repeating over and over again that the girls ALWAYS GET TO GO FIRST & Clara is prancing around waving her present like a flag of triumph. I guess it's unrealistic to think that they can manage much beyond play, pouring their own juice and using the potty. I need to STOP being so optimistic now that they are 3, 4 and 6 and START realizing that they are 3, 4 and 6.

Moving forward, I will now refer to the Advent Calendar as the EVENT Calendar and during that time, I will refer to my sweet darlings as Thing 3, Thing 4 and Thing 6.

I welcome it. Another opportunity for the children to transcend & break the code of willful DNA that Dave and I passed along to them.