Our household has been counting down the days until Christmas since the beginning of December. Inspired by a friend, I went out and got the Playmobil nativity scene with the supplementary wisemen set and each morning this month D has gotten a piece of the sets. We already had a cloth Advent calendar shaped like a Christmas tree with little pockets for each day. But because the pockets were too small for most of the Playmobil figures we put a clue in the pocket that led to a hiding spot somewhere in the apartment where D would find a little blue sachet with the Playmobil piece inside. (I realize as I type this that this is the kind of seemingly elaborate activity that I usually scoff at on mommyblogs!).
I didn't anticipate how magical this would be for D. That is, she didn't assume that her parents were orchestrating the whole thing; instead she asked me a number of times how the clues got into the calendar. On a few forgetful nights we even neglected to set it up before going to bed - but she remained unphased. The clues were little pictures we drew of the hiding spots. Since LePapa and I took turns drawing them, we had fun teasing each other if she didn't recognize what we'd attempted to sketch!
D definitely understood that when we got to the last pocket it would be Christmas. So this morning, although it's is only December 23, we put the clue in the final pocket. In our family, Christmas started today! This morning we opened presents together and had a special breakfast (cinnamon rolls, sausage, yogurt with blackberries, and that expensive natural apple juice).
The first present that D opened was the box set of the four Shrek films. Although Shrek has been the defining narrative of 2011 for D, she didn't actually own all four films until this morning. She was so thrilled that she refused to open any other gifts and watched Shrek 3 immediately. (This was not unwelcome, as we had to finish cleaning and prepping for our trip.) When her movie ended, she immediately got down by the tree and ripped open another gift all by herself (i.e. we weren't even there to see her open it or to confirm that it was indeed a gift addressed to her!). It was a princess-y domino game that we played together while we ate. After that we all opened all the other presents. Classically, baby A was interested in the wrapping paper although I'm sure he also liked the very trendy hand-printed onesie that we bought for him at l'Arterie.
We played a game called Storytime that we got for D and then we played Candyland. D decided to forgo the usual gingerbread man marker and to use the Playmobil baby Jesus as her gamepiece. Jesus reached the Candy Castle first.
Miraculously, we managed to clean up and pack up and get on the road in time for the afternoon naps. So now we're away for 2 weeks celebrating Christmas with much enthusiasm.
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