Not Just One
Aidan has not one but two advent calendars. One is a red wooden box with 25 numbered doors that open to reveal the perfect sized cubby hole for 25 trinkets or pieces of candy. Every Thanksgiving, I drop it off at my mother-in-law’s house and she stocks it full of surprises. The other is the traditional cardboard one you buy from the grocery store; it as molded pieces of candy inside each flap.
Every morning (and every night, but I deny the nighttime requests) Aidan asks to open a door. We look at the monthly calendar and I point to which day it is. He reads the number and then we count that many doors (or flaps) on his advent calendars. As he counts higher and higher, getting closer to the number of the current date, he gets more and more excited. His voice starts to trail upwards and he squeals with delight until he can open the doors and claim his prize.
I keep both calendars up on the kitchen counter because he’s just too curious to be trusted, but he’s craftier than I thought…
…I came into the kitchen this morning to find him on his hands and knees hovering over the cardboard advent calendar — he had already popped 3 pieces of chocolate in his mouth! I exclaimed in horror, “Aidan! Stop!” but before I could retrieve the calendar, he was scrambling to pull a 4th candy from a random numbered door…giggling all the while.
