A Breakthrough!

The saga with John and Christmas continues...

I got a great new Christmas CD called "Mary's Lullaby: Christmas Songs for Bedtime" from Deseret Book. It is a quiet, peaceful collection of some of my favorite seasonal songs. Because both children were content and happy, I decided to test the waters as we ran errands today. I slipped the CD in and within three notes of the first song John was in hysterics.

"Is this church music?"

"No it's Christmas music."

"Ahhhhh!! It's church Christmas music! It's not even church day!! Turn it off, turn it OFF!"

The tantrum continued while Katherine was saying how much she really liked it, so I turned it up to drown out the screaming and crying. I heard too many reasons to turn it off to list here, but my favorite was, "Mommy! It's too cute, the music is too cute for me, you have to turn it off!" As if he would melt from listening to "cute" music.

The breakthrough came during song 6: The Little Drummer Boy. I told him he had to be quiet because it was one of my favorite Christmas songs and it was about a boy playing a drum. I knew the drum might spark his interest. By the end of the song he wanted to hear it again. By the end of the CD he said to me, "Mommy, I was wrong. I actually like this music. It is so soothing." And he was right, it is way more "soothing" than it is "cute".

AND I read four days worth of Christmas stories before bed. Of course, none of them could mention the actual Christmas event, but they definitely didn't mention Santa either.