Saturday, December 18, 2010

My Contemplation Leads to a Serious Question

Our Christmas shopping is done--a week early!
I was thinking about this on our way to the library this afternoon, which led me to the obvious conclusion that there are only two weeks left in the year.  I said something like this out loud (more to myself than anything) and I hear Toby say from the back seat, "No, there's only one week left."  I told him that there's one week left until Christmas (clearly this is what he's concerned with) but there's another week after that and then the year ends.  I was totally unprepared for his return question: "And then we all die?"
I couldn't believe where his five-year-old mind went!  We haven't ever mentioned the concept of the calendar changing the year and date, so he was caught off guard by the idea of the year ending.
I quickly reassured him that we weren't going to die--it just meant a new year was starting.  I apologized to him for scaring him with my out-of-context thoughts.  He seemed to be okay, but I think we'll have to do a little at-home mini lesson on what calendars mean.

On the way home from the library the calendar conversation was completely forgotten.  While listening to a Frank Sinatra song Norah asked, "Who is this?"  I told her who it was and she said "He's singing about jingle bells!  Can I sing with him?"  Of course I agreed, and for the last 5 minutes of the ride home we sang along (to Frank Sinatra's Christmas Dreams)--but the Christmas songs my kids know turned into a mish-mash of "Jingle bells coming to town on Frosty the reindeer in a silent night."
Here's a sideways video of Norah saying Merry Christmas and then showing off her lunch.  Enjoy.

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