Deep into the holiday season, are we. The DVR has gone from about 30% full to nearly 70% of capacity thanks to all the holiday shows we’ve recorded. The pantry is full of the dry ingredients for our annual Christmas cookies, which we’ll make soon. I’m beginning to run out of new places to put Elf on the Shelf each night.
But our holidays got a jolt of newness Saturday when L. lost her first tooth. I didn’t realize her tooth was even close to coming out, but Saturday she had S. take a look at it, and with a quick yank she had a gap in her bottom row. She was very happy, and wondered aloud how much money the Tooth Fairy would bring her. Which set off an argument when S. said she got $5 for a front tooth and M. insisted she didn’t get that much when she lost her front teeth. I honestly couldn’t remember, and didn’t bother to look it up, but I think that’s right. Regardless, L. got $5.
I’ve always been pretty proud of my Tooth Fairy performance. Each effort has come without incident. The closest call came once with C., when I stepped on a Zhou Zhou pet that was lying on the floor and set it off. Luckily neither she nor L. woke up before I tossed it out into the hallway1. And once I forgot to make the switch until morning. But it was C. again, and being our deepest sleeper, I had no problem slipping in and making the last-minute switch before I roused her for breakfast.
All this went through my mind Saturday night after I slid the money under L.’s pillow. So naturally, in the dark of a 7:00 AM December morning, she kept coming into our room and telling us she couldn’t find her loot. When she left the room, S. would whisper to me, “Where’d you put it?” “UNDER HER PILLOW!” I’d whisper back then flip over and hide my head under the pillow, trying to squeeze in a few more minutes of sleep. Fortunately, with some help from the sisters, L. found it. Apparently it had worked its way from her beneath pillow to the space between her bed frame and her mattress. But there it was, thankfully, and she was ready to go to Target or anywhere, really, where she could spend it.
That wasn’t her only excitement. Her class has been practicing their songs for the school Christmas program for a couple weeks. The Pre-K fills the special role of acting out the first Christmas. Parts were handed out Monday and she nabbed the plum role of Mary. No lines, she just has to dress up and hold a doll. But this is a Catholic preschool, so Mary is about as big a role as you can get!
Her sisters are busy practicing for their programs as well. M.’s class is putting on a Christmas mystery of sorts. She has a lot of lines, in the role of Mistletoe the FBI inspector. FBI stands for something festive and funny, but she left her lines at school and I can’t remember what that is. C. is an angel in the first grade’s living nativity scene next week. She has four lines and gets to help hold the star that guides the wise men.
So pretty heady times for the girls. Drama camp can’t be too far off in the future if they nail these performances.
- This was back when they shared a room. ↩