Living Christmas in the Present

My two-year-old bounded down the stairs in his dragon costume the day after Thanksgiving and yelled, “Mom! It’s Christmas! It’s Christmas!” Unaware of this turn of events, I was a little surprised at the news. I looked down at his little stuffed ‘crocogator’ head and then at his shining eyes.
“It’s Christmas?” I asked.
“It’s Christmas! Thanksgiving is over and now it’s Christmas!” My little dragon was bursting with joy, so he ran around the house once more for good measure.  I told him Christmas wasn’t for another month, but his crocogator tail had already disappeared into his brother’s room to spread the good news. After all, Christmas comes after Thanksgiving. And Thanksgiving was over.
My blurry-eyed crew met up for breakfast and we discovered that Christmas was still a ways off, but tomorrow we could set up the tree. Four-year-old Caleb slumped in his chair and put a hand on his chin, looking thoughtfully off into the distance.
“Caleb, what are you thinking about?” I asked.
He looked at me, still absorbed, and said, “Mom, is it today or tomorrow?”
“It’s today dear.”
(Big sigh.) “Mom, why is it always today and never tomorrow?”
I had to think about that for a while. The tree went up after breakfast.