Is it Christmas NOW?

Anyone who has children (or for that matter has been a child at Christmas time) probably knows well the torture that we parents can put our children through simply by putting presents under the tree prior to Christmas. Perhaps your family doesn't do this as I do know several people who wait until Christmas Eve to put packages under the tree. For me, growing up, Santa always came to our house during the Christmas Eve church service and filled our stockings at that time. Though, typically, he always left presents earlier for Mom and Dad to put under the tree. There's just something about a tree without presents under it that just doesn't feel complete to me. Even so, this year, I do feel a little sorry for Maggie.

We put the tree up last weekend, after Thanksgiving of course. As our tradition, we got a real tree (I was going to say "live" but of course, it is no longer living, but we hope to keep it green until Christmas and/or a few days after). We pulled out the decorations and Maggie really got into decorating this year. She enjoyed putting ornaments on the tree and asked a lot of questions about them.

Grandma and Grandpa Dailey left a Christmas present for Maggie when they visited in November. So naturally, Rocky put it under the tree once it was up. And naturally, Maggie asked if she could open it. We told her she needed to wait until Christmas. And of course, the next question out of her mouth was "is it Christmas now?" And pretty much every day since then, she has asked "Is it Christmas NOW?" I was going to get her an Advent Calendar this weekend to help with the countdown, but fortunately, they made one in preschool. Now, each morning, we put a sticker on and wait for Maggie to ask if she can put on more or if it is Christmas now. Only 20 more days to go . . .