"It's Christmas Today"

It’s Christmas Today Published 12.22.CLT

By Allan Olson

            On Monday, I asked the kids if they knew what week it was. I got the usual answers from the younger ones. 

            “I don’t know,” Marcus said; and a shoulder shrug from Abigail. 

            “It’s Christmas week,” I said, trying to get excited for the holidays. 

            “It’s Christmas!” Marcus said with excitement in his voice. “I gotta tell mommy it’s Christmas!” he said, running down the hall. Many times over the last weeks he has asked if it’s Christmas today.

            This year is the first in at least three years that we’ve put any effort into decorating our house. We dragged the tree out of storage (all three feet of it), decorated it with lights, tinsel and small tree decorations. The kids eagerly and willingly wanted to help with every aspect of the job. Another brave venture we tackled this year was setting up our ceramic houses and pieces that go with them.

            The kids were in awe the next morning when they saw them all displayed brightly. It wasn’t long and they were messing with the little pieces we had carefully arranged and, of course, we’ve since suffered a couple of casualties along the way. Some of the little ceramic pieces ended up with a broken something or other.

            I asked Abigail one morning why she was playing with them. “Because I like them,” she said. A fairly logical, straight forward answer for a four-year-old, I thought.         “Just be careful,” I cautioned. 

            “I will,” she said.

            Abigail and careful are two words that don’t fit together. Abigail and carefree – and sometimes careless – are a better fit. I’m certain that at least one of the casualties suffered was due to her “careful” little hands.

            With the decorating completed, and thankfully the shopping done, we are now trying to finish our baking.

            This weekend, the kids and I made caramel rolls. That was a challenge all in itself.

            The girls and I did the larger portion of the roll making process. As most parents know, doing anything with children can be frustrating, challenging and enjoyable all “rolled” into one.

            I had to keep the girls on task – that was the easy part – with 15 loaves ready to be transformed into a caramel roll. The harder part was keeping them from hurting themselves or me.

            I got everything prepped before allowing them to help.

            The process involved the girls taking turns, and me being quicker than they were.

Overall, it went smoothly for me, working with my flighty four-year-old and bossy three-year-old. They’ve done this enough times that they know the process and they think they can help every step of the way.

            We were about halfway through when I slipped up. I left my paring knife on the table – big mistake, and I knew it. I turned my back, and Abigail was rolling out the bread. Then the bossy one took over, and Abigail grabbed the knife and started slicing.

All of this happened in a matter of seconds. I knew that I left the knife. I also knew that with my girls at the table, my recovery needed to be immediate.

            Thankfully, it’s a small kitchen, and I reached the table and Abigail’s knife hand before any damage or injuries were experienced. She was slicing the table, just like I sliced my rolls.

            Thankfully all the rolls were done with no injuries, and the dishes cleaned up in time for our next Christmas goodies project.

            As far as our little villages that are displayed, since the first week they’ve pretty much lost interest in those, and no more casualties have been experienced.

            The Christmas presents have been set out, and hopefully, they will be left intact until the big day.

            I wish everyone a Happy Christmas and a great New Year. Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a great week. We welcome your comments, so feel free to drop us a line at cltimes1@arvig.net.