Counting down 'til Christmas

Journaling reads:

Since the first day of December, Shelby has a new ritual. Each morning, as soon as she wakes up, she comes downstairs and changes the Christmas countdown blocks to show how many days are left until Christmas. She does it unprompted. She’s practically wiping the sleep from her eyes and is on a very serious mission. As if one advent calendar wasn’t enough, we actually have two more! A few years ago I made an advent calendar and each year we fill it with treats and Shelby gladly takes a chocolate goody from the appropriate box each morning. Normally, this advent calendar sits on a little table next to our piano. Shelby is a creature of habit and since we put the calendar on that table a few years ago that’s now it’s place … but Cooper got his naughty little hands on the calendar, started taking all the goodies out of the boxes and the calendar has been relocated to somewhere he can’t reach! This weekend, we purchased our third advent calendar, one featuring the characters of the story “Olive the Other Reindeer.” This one is quickly becoming Shelby’s favorite count down tool.