The alarm rings in the too dark, too early morning and I stumble over to her room. Air purifier clicks off, curtains are pushed to the side, blinds twisted open. My girl is snuggled down somewhere in her bed, under fuzzy blanket and pillows that have been kicked and pushed around. This toddler of mine, she’s barely still even when she’s asleep. I click the button on her mini Christmas tree and she wakes up slowly under the twinkling lights – and like her mama, not always in the brightest of spirits.
Books about Christmas sit around, reminders of our bedtime routine that now includes opening an ornament and reading from Unwrapping the Greatest Gift. At three, my little can hardly sit through the reading, instead bouncing around with stuffed animals, playing with her tree and finding 100 reasons to ask “why.” She races to hang the ornament on our banister and we try to remember if she’s torn off a ring on her Christmas countdown paper chain. The mornings are yet one more Christmas countdown experience, this time an Advent calendar with little doors to open that reveal Lego figures while we try to get dressed, brush hair, find shoes, and get out the door for school on time while promising that we’ll watch the new Christmas Mickey Mouse Clubhouse after school and fielding questions about Santa.
I’m over at Mothers of Daughters today, sharing three easy Christmas scriptures to share with your preschooler, and I’d love for you to join me and read the rest!
