At the grocery store, I spied at the head of the checkout aisle a children’s chocolate advent calendar.  The price?  $2.59.  Each December day leading to Christmas, a child can open a perforated paper window to retrieve a small chocolate prize.  I thought Mom might enjoy the calendar, and the chocolate—she is more and more childlike, after all.  She was thrilled when I gave her the calendar and explain its purpose.  With both discipline and curious anticipation, she opened one window every day, delighted to see the sweet prize that lay inside.  Every day she shouted to me with glee, “Guess what I got today?!” from the advent calendar. One day it was a candle. Another day an angel, or a lamb, or a star.  This cheap little children’s advent calendar gave Mom more meaning and enjoyment in the celebration of Christ’s birth than any other single activity or decoration.  Who would have thought?  I will definitely be keeping this new holiday tradition in the years to come. Something so small was to Mom something so important.