84 DAYS 'TIL CHRISTMAS!

I saw an electronic countdown to Christmas sign in Target yesterday, and almost threw up a little in my mouth.

And because Josie is a little bit psychic and seems to be able to read my mind, she was asking questions about Santa Claus before bed last night. She's a little wary of this strange guy just barging into our house, ALL THE WAY in our house, but was reassured when I reminded her that this particular overweight stranger stuffs himself down our chimney and brings her gifts.

But don't take candy from strangers. No conflicting messages there.

She seemed satisfied with that, and contentedly stuck her thumb in her mouth and closed her eyes. But as I was reaching for the door on my way out of her room, she sat up in bed and proclaimed, "But Mommy! We don't have our Christmas tree up yet! We have to go buy a tree!"

It's going to be a long 84 days.

Parents of toddlers/preschoolers... if you want a sure-fire way to make a kid happy - go to Kohl's and buy them a stuffed bear or jaguar for $2.50. I was picking up a couple of things and saw the display by the checkout. The proceeds to go charity, so they claim, and when I brought the bear home for Josie and the jaguar home for Eve (my reasoning behind who got which one was that Eve is super cute when she says "jaguar," and does the little jaguar sound from Diego) you would have thought that Christmas DID come early in our house.

Except then this morning as we were trying to head out the door, Eve had a baby doll in her arms, and remembered the jaguar. She told Pat he needed to carry it for her, you know, since she already had her hands full, but we told her that she needed to choose between the baby and the jaguar. Man, how many times have I had to make that same choice - it's a tough one, and I felt her pain. She chose the baby, but was not happy at leaving the jaguar behind. And boy. Did we have to hear about it... down the steps. And down the sidewalk. And into the garage. And into the car. And ALL the way to daycare. And into Betty's house. And as we left Betty's house. Broken little sobs, punctuated by "jaaa (sniffle) aaggg (sniffle) uuuarrrrrr." Not nearly as cute as I remembered. Maybe I should have given her the damn bear.