We have plastic plates with white dots on them that look very much like snowflakes, and this morning my boy came in and said, “Mom, you need to put these snowflake plates away.”  All of the holiday stuff was stowed last weekend, but I usually keep these plate out because, well, it’s still winter.  “They are TOO Christmassy.”  he says. “How about we just think of them as polka dot plates?” suggests my clever girl.  Nothing doing.  “Put them away,” he says, “they make me worried.”

Everything its place at its proper moment; this how he keeps from being overwhelmed and thus he structures our lives for us by compelling us to manage the details properly. Sometimes, just so he knows that change is doable, we will do something really crazy like have hamburgers for lunch at home (“It’s not dark!  They are only for dinner!”) or ask him to take a shower in the morning (“HMPH!”).

But this time, on this subzero no school Monday holiday (“No PJs all day, right, Mom?”), I will store the plates away until the day after Thanksgiving, when he will undoubtedly ask for them.

I should probably take the Christmas wreath off of the front porch, too.

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PS  The cookies in the photo are salted shortbread cookies and the recipe can be found here.