Childhood in December

Yesterday when my kids were driving me nuts, I remembered I'm dealing with people who believe an Elf travels from our apartment to the North Pole every night. They believe this regular doll comes to life, like in the movies, and has a brain and a voice!

And beyond all this, they see brown shipping boxes around the house. I'm so careless about hiding them. And yet, they still believe Santa is bringing them gifts, not Amazon. One of the packages even had the label on the outside, completely giving the present inside away. Ella read it and said, "Oh! The boy's scooters!" I shrugged it off. Later when she confronted me about it, I told her it's the box for my new Christmas scooter. It was, but she didn't question whether the box also contained the boy's too. It's so adorable.

So I'm trying to give my kids a little slack when they wake up at 6:30am asking for donuts. Or when they walk so slow down the sidewalk. Or get so silly they can't sleep at night. I'm trying to remember, the world, to them, is filled with magic.

Photos by the talented Mark Abernathy. So lucky to have him as a friend! Another amazing portrait he took of my boys here.