Traditions

Every year my sisters and I would get a cardboard advent calendar from our mom. We'd duct tape them to the front of our bedroom doors and then every day we'd open a "door", ooh and ahh over the tiny little chocolate shape waiting nesteld inside the mold, and then gobble them up on our way to the kitchen for breakfast.

One year, one of my sisters, I think it was Lisa but it could have been Heidi, stashed away ALL of her little chocolate pieces. On Christmas day, after opening the special "double doors" on the calendar, she pulled out her little pile of 24 secret treats and commenced eating them triumphantly in front of us. OOOHHHH how I envied that little saved up pile!

I literally squealed when my mom unpacked three advent calendars from her luggage last week. I couldn't believe that she'd shlepped them all the way to our house! I promptly taped Ezra's to his door and proceeded to tell him the story of the Christmas when my sister was able to save each and every treat. His response to the climatic ending of my story was, "Treat?"

Sadly, the Ezra man and chocolate are not friends....let me restate that....the Ezra man after EATING chocolate is not one of Mommy's favorite people. It's like a chipmunk drinking a liter of cold Coke....I have NEVER seen anyone act crazier on a sugar high!!

So, instead, I opened each door (sacrilege, I know) removed each chocolate (I'd like to say that I threw them away...but secretly I now know what having a whole stash of advent chocolates feels like), and replaced each daily treat with his gummy multivitamin. HA! He still gets excited to open the doors each day...and I get excited because now I can finally remember if I gave him a vitamin or not.

Aren't traditions fun? =)