The smell of Gingerbread cookies and frosty air seem to go hand in hand.  While doing some holiday baking with two grandchildren, we asked what were their favorite kind of cookies that they made with Grandma.  The older one (age 7) replied "Chocolate chip are my favorite!"  The younger one (just turned 3) chirped "I love the Jingle Bell cookies."  Puzzled, we prodded her to tell us more about these "jingle bell" cookies that were her favorites.  Turned out she was trying to tell us Gingerbread cookies were her favorite--but in her young mind they were Jingle Bell cookies!



Jingle What?????????

The pre-school class was singing Jingle Bells in preparation for the Winter Performance. The teacher noticed that one particular child was not singing "bells" but "balls" as he shook his hand bells in time to the music.  After the song she went up to him to correct him, saying, it is Jingle Bells, not Jingle balls.  To this the child replied, if you look at my bells, they are ball shaped so they are Jingle Balls.  I guess this child will have a great future as a lawyer!


I have always taken the grandchildren shopping at the dollar store during the holidays.  I let them each pick out a present for the various members of the family, pay for them and then bring them home and wrap them. (AND yes, we go through a lot of tape and the packages look like they have been in an accident, but the children truly look forward to this event each year.  This year the youngest, Logan(3), was all smiles as we cruised the various aisles.  He picked out a small massaging pillow for his mommy ("Her back hurts"), a car air freshener for his Daddy (it was orange-Logan's favorite color, and he said daddy always says something stinks).  We were impressed with how he was using his little logic to pick out his gifts.  We asked if he wanted to get his other grandmother a gift and he toddled off to the kitchen aisle and picked up a spatula.  When I asked why he was getting it, he replied: "So she can make Crabby Patties like Sponge Bob!"  We laughed all the way home!



Children often take things so literally it can be heartwarming, or in this case, heart breaking!  MY favorite story happened many years ago around Martin Luther King's Birthday.  A child in therapy was working on a graphic project to encourage appropriate pencil/crayon grasp.  It was a dot to dot picture of Martin Luther King.  As we worked on connecting the dots and then coloring in the picture, I explained to the child that we would not be in school on Monday, as we were off to celebrate Dr. King's Birthday.  Soon tears were spilling onto his paper, and I could see he was beginning to cry.  When I asked him what was wrong, he sobbed  "I'm sorry" (with his lip quivering) "But, he didn't invite me to his Birthday Party!" 

Our grandson (4) was talking with his Mom and something he said made her say "Your so Smart!"  His reply was "Am I smart, or am I K-Mart Smart?"  Guess he was paying attention to the television ads!