Hello, My goal is to have a user select a year and a month. Translate the selection into a date and have the user control send the date back to my view model. That part works for me....However, I cannot get the ViewModel's initial date to set those drop downs. public static readonly DependencyProperty Date = DependencyProperty.Register("ReturnDate", typeof(DateTime), typeof(DatePicker), new FrameworkPropertyMetadata{BindsTwoWayByDefault = true,}); public DateTime ReturnDate { get { return Convert.ToDateTime(GetValue(Date)); } set { SetDropDowns(value); SetValue(Date, value); } } The SetDropDowns(value) just sets the selected items on the combo boxes, however, the program never makes it to that method. On the view I am using: <cc1:DatePicker ReturnDate="{Binding Path=StartDate, Mode=TwoWay}" IsStart="True" /> If this has been answered, then my bad. I looked around and didn't see anything that worked for me. Thus, when the program loads how do I get the value from the view model to a method in order to set the combo boxes? Thanks, -Scott