"I'm Not Eating My Sister's Candy!"-Emily Grace, 4 years old

When my second daughter was about 4, one day nearing Christmas I realized it was entirely too quiet in the house and inquired as to her whereabouts. Emily's response to the question, "Hey Em, whatcha doin?"..."I'm not eating my sisters candy."

Now, I'm sure all you mothers out there know precisely what 4 year old candy lover Emily Grace was doing to her sister's candy, which happened to be a part of an Advent Calendar. Of course, she was in fact stuffing little peices chocolate greedily down her tiny little gullet, hoping, praying, that somehow, not only would she not get caught, but that her sisters calendar would somehow not be ruined in the act of piracy.

Fast Forward 10 years.

I thought about fixing the red-eye in that picture of Lily, but I truthfully felt that the devilish gleam suited the situation perfectly, and chose to keep it in place. The shredded paper below was ( not the key word *was*...yes, past tense intentional) an Advent Calendar.

Following in her sister's footsteps before her, Lily is a great lover of all things chocolate. ( who are we kidding, its all things sweet, her very first sentence afterall was "I like cookies") and in that great tradition of all things Emily Grace, decided that simply having a single peice of chocolate each day between now and Christmas was, well, pointless. Why dole it out in tiny portions when you could not only have it all at once, but you could have your brother's too?

We have an interesting "history" with Advent Calendars. Never has one made it 24 days, never has one made it 14 days, but NEVER has one (or two as the case may be) been entirely cleaned out by Dec 3rd.

Now, it could be argued that this is the fault of the Mommy. After 4 children and at least 12 episodes of Unauthorized Advent Burglery one would think that a mother would get the clue that these things need to be put up. But what's the fun of a Christmas Calendar that you can't see?

And besides, by now, its become tradition. And who am I to take such a joyful tradition away from my children? So, eat away baby girl, eat away...oh, wait, there's nothing left. Did you find what you were looking for in the pantry? I doubt it, because I did finally throw away the halloween candy. So there!

***For those of you who have a face book account, search for the group "Im declaring Dec 23rd to be Hold the Door Day" and join the group. (and of course make invitations to all of your friends)It would be so fun to see the group grow!

In case you're wondering, that's my maiden name, and nope, not gonna tell you my real one...lol