every day is Christmas

We have a Danielson family tradition which, oddly enough, began once Beth and I left home. Nanna gathers all sorts of everyday goodies, wraps them up and gives them to us to celebrate the advent season. Typically, there is one present to open each day between Thanksgiving and Christmas. In college, these gifts were totally practical things like quarters for the washing machine, dryer sheets, a new toothbrush, a box of Q-Tips. Back then, choosing the gift that was opened each day was directly related to what we had just run out of, the shape of the package, and our keen prediction skills based on previous years' gifts (candy never lasted past the first week).

Now that we're older, have families, and most importantly, have homes and storage spaces of our own, the gifts are a mix of day-to-day necessities and boxes of our old junk that Nanna doesn't want filling up her closet space. Luke could really care less what is in the packages (unless it's candy or cookies). This year he has relished opening a gift each night after dinner. You can tell from this video what a laborious task it is to choose just the right one. To add some closure to the video, Luke eventually chose the large box which contained my college lettermans jacket and a random leather jacket that actually belonged to my sister. That one is getting wrapped up and given to it's rightful owner.