Christmas in July

For some reason, this week in the Pollard household has been all about Christmas.

It all started with Hendon wanting to know if he was on the "Naughty List" or the "Nice List." He wanted to know this because he'd been naughty, of course. Then, the focus on Christmas expanded to how many presents you would get if you were on the "Nice List," what you wanted the presents to be and who would get the most presents.

"I wand a bound housd for Christmads," Merrill informed me. "A bounce house?" I asked. "Yeah," said Hendon. "Santa can just put it in our back yard."

I reminded the kids that Christmas was still months away, but that didn't seem to phase them. Before I knew it, we were watching "Polar Express" (2 times so far this week) and Merrill was walking around singing "Jingle Bells."

Yesterday, Hendon informed me that I was on the "Nice List" and that so far I've earned 12 presents. "Wow," I said. "Thanks!" Hendon told Daddy that he has only earned 11 presents so far. "Ha!" said Mommy.

A while later, Hendon was naughty again, got into trouble and was punished by Daddy. "Daddy," Hendon said, "you only get 10 presents now. But, Mommy, you're still on the nice list."