My sister Hannah and my sister-in-law Kelly AND my Aunt Emily ganged up on me today on Facebook and told me I have to blog now. I wouldn't pay them any attention except that Kelly is carrying my nephew Clark, and since I want to be his favorite aunt ever when he makes his appearance in a couple of months, I had better be nice to his mama. So here is a random story for a Monday evening.

The other day, Kate and I went to Wal-Mart for some inconsequential item that I can no longer even remember, and during that shopping trip Kate discovered the magic of Christmas or, at the very least, the magic of Retail. The reason I can't remember what we were there to get is because I didn't really mean to go to Wal-Mart in the first place. Kate and I were headed home from visiting some friends, and all the sudden, from the back seat, she starts screaming about how she wants to go to the "Stooooooore! The stoooooooore!" Apparently, she was under the impression that we were going to The Store (Wal-Mart) and when I turned in the direction away from Wal-Mart she could not continue living. So we went to the store.

We were toddling along in the pharmacy section when it happened. Kate looked down the giant aisle and saw that Wal-Mart, about ten seconds into the month of November, had transformed their Lawn and Garden section into a Christmas tree display area. I realized she had seen this because she stopped in the middle of the aisle and squealed "Ooooooh! Pretty tree!"

We spent the next half hour observing all the many ways that a fake tree can be made to look like ... something that is not even remotely a tree. There are silver trees, gold trees, and even pink and blue tinsel trees. Kate's favorite was a three-foot-tall hot pink aluminum tree that I know she would buy and set up in her bedroom year-round if she were allowed to do so. If it were up to her, we'd also have a tacky inflatable glowing Santa Clause on our roof. I had to drag her out of there, and I warned Dan that through the month of December, we're basically going to have to stick to the grocery side of Wal-Mart unless we want to take a detour to Tree Land.

But even though it wasn't what I had planned for the morning, a little part of me smiled. This will, I think, be the first Christmas that Kate really "gets." Last year she liked the tree and loved getting presents, but I think she just saw them as random unconnected events. This year, she's already dancing to Christmas music because of a CD I am using to learn seasonal choir music at church. She's noticing the decorations all over the place in stores, and she has loved going to a couple of rehearsals for a Christmas pageant at church, in which she and a lot of other two-year-olds are going to be angels. Adorable, hyperactive angels. The weekend after Thanksgiving when we drag out all our Christmas decorations, she's going to be beside herself, and I can't wait. As cheesy as it sound I'm really looking forward to seeing Christmas through her eyes. It's easy for me to see the month of December looming up on the calendar and start thinking about all the things I have to get done. But having a two-year-old around pretty much forces you to stop and soak up the moments, like roaming around the Christmas tree aisle at Wal-mart for fun. So bring on December and all the pretty trees.

As if I didn't already know how much Kate has changed since the last holiday season, last night I flipped through my pictures from the 2008 December Photo Project, and was shocked by how much she looks like a baby in those images from just a year ago.