One Saturday in the middle of October, the four-year-old came downstairs as I was making breakfast. He still wore his pajamas and had a groggy look about him. He stepped into the kitchen and, without troubling himself with the exchange of any top-of-the-morning niceties, asked. “Is it Thanksgiving?”

He was disappointed to learn that it was not. His disappointment stemmed, not from a particular childlike love of the thrill-devoid holiday known as Thanksgiving, but from a recently gained knowledge that Thanksgiving was an obstacle that must necessarily be removed from the way if Christmas were ever to come.

A couple of weeks before, I had explained to him that we would have Halloween first, followed by Thanksgiving. Then, it would get to be winter and Christmas would come. I can only attribute the fact that he forgot all about Halloween to the early hour of day, his sleepy disposition, and the proven fact that toys are more exciting than candy.

Well, if it weren’t even Thanksgiving yet, there was still time to go brush his teeth.

Today, I have good news for the boy, because now it is Thanksgiving, and that is practically the doorstep of Christmas. Winter is such an unreliable arrival that it is hardly worth counting, which means Christmas is up next.

Halloween

Thanksgiving

→Christmas!!!!←

All the lesser holidays are out of the way! Christmas is almost here! So let’s put this turkey to bed and start the countdown!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

P.S. I’m not telling him it’s Thanksgiving until after he brushes his teeth.

Only one more page to go!