Scene: Jacob and Annabelle are sitting on the living room floor by the Christmas tree putting puzzles together. A Christmas Wiggles DVD is playing on the TV behind them. Annabelle reaches over to grab a puzzle piece from Jacob's halfway put together puzzle.
Jacob: Annabelle, DON'T TAKE MY PUZZLES!! Do you want Santa to mark your name off his list???
Annabelle: AAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH! (then, ever so sweetly) No.
Aahhh. Christmas. I love this time of year. Can't you just feel the love?
Four Sundays before Christmas marks the beginning of Advent and every year, our church recognizes this by displaying an Advent wreath. A different family lights one of the candles each week until the final candle is lit Christmas Eve. Last Sunday, our family had the priviledge of lighting the candle and giving the short devotion. When we were asked to participate, Heath and I were both a little nervous. Not about lighting the candle or giving the devotion. We were nervous about how our precious little gifts from God would behave. While our children may be gifts from God, they don't always act like it. I had visions of Annabelle flinging herself from my arms and knocking the candles over; or screaming and running down the aisle. Maybe Jacob would throw a fit because Daddy wouldn't let him light the candle. Oh boy.
All I can say is, "Thank you, God for answering our prayers." Jacob was very well-behaved and I've never seen Annabelle so calm. She remained in my arms, then Heath's arms with nary a scream or (much of) a squirm. Later that morning, several people commented on their excellent behavior and I just said, "Yeah. That was definitely God at work." Then there were a couple people, who know Annabelle well, who asked me, "What kind of drugs did you give her?" No drugs. All God. :)
I don't have any photos of the actual event, but we did take a few when we returned home.
Last Friday we made our annual trip to see the the Holiday Festival of Lights...and Santa. I've always loved seeing the Christmas lights and now, watching and listening to Jacob's and Annabelle's reactions make it even more fun. When Annabelle sees something she likes or something that surprises her, she says, "Wow!" But not "Wow" like you would think. Annabelle's "Wow" sounds kind of like a growl...a dinosaur roar...a tiger. I don't know why she says it that way, but it cracks me up every time. Jacob seemed more into the lights this year than last year, pointing out funny things that he saw and telling us which ones he liked best.
Several days prior, I began talking about our trip to see Santa. I knew Jacob woud be fine. He was all ready to tell Santa what he wants for Christmas -- a space shuttle. Annabelle, I wasn't so sure about. Last year, she cried for quite a while before we were finally able to get a decent picture. I was hoping this year would be different. It was. Although she wasn't thrilled to sit on Santa's lap, she didn't scream. She got all her screaming out while we waited in line. She wasn't really interested in smiling for the camera, but as long as she wasn't crying to get down, I was ok with it.
In line to see Santa -- Annabelle needed a pep talk. Jacob couldn't get there fast enough.
Jacob, as I expected, talked Santa's ear off about how he wanted a space shuttle for Christmas and how Annabelle was too little to tell him what she wanted. Santa greeted Jacob by saying, "Wow! Look how much you've grown!" I thought that was a nice touch. :)
Back at home, Jacob and Annabelle are learning the real meaning of Christmas by playing with the Little People nativity set. It's one of the most popular toys at our house right now. They both play with it all the time. For some reason, baby Jesus seems to get misplaced quite often, so I constantly hear Annabelle saying, "Babe...Desus...go?" (Where did baby Jesus go?) When Jacob plays with it, he sounds like a preacher, telling the story and then ending with a talk about how much God loves everyone. Maybe he'll be a pastor one day. Who knows? A pastor... who also plays the drums in a band. :)
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