Christmas Time!

I've really been enjoying this Christmas season. Alison and I have spent several afternoons baking together and listening to Christmas music. She loves listening to the Chipmunk's and thinks they're pretty funny when they crack jokes in the middle of songs. We learned very quickly this year that presents are a much bigger deal than we thought. Ben put the presents under the tree a couple of days ago because he said half the fun is anticipating opening them. We told Alison that we would open them Christmas morning and that morning would come when we had finished all the pages in our Advent book that we read every night. Well, one afternoon I was putting away some dishes in the kitchen when I heard some paper rip...Alison decided to make her own Christmas morning and dove into a present. After some contemplation on how to parent this offense, I prayed that she would quickly forget the present she just saw. Shortly after that she wondered into the baby's room, opened the closet, dug through all the boxes and miscellaneous things and discovered her "big" present I hadn't wrapped yet. She came and found me and said, "Mommy, may I please have my Elmo table?" Dumbfounded I tried to convince her that there wasn't such a thing and attempted to distract her. But she gave my hand a tug and said, "Come with me Mommy, I'll show you where it is." She has asked so sweetly and politely for that table every day. I'm hoping she'll forget before Christmas or at least be very excited when she can finally play with it.
Alison also learned a new Bible verse this week. It absolutely blows my mind how quickly she can memorize things. Throughout the week I've heard her saying James 4:12 over and over to herself. It is a huge blessing to me to hear my child say scripture to herself and know that she is hiding the word of God in her heart.