Mayhem and Magic

Christmas Meme

Krissy tagged me for a Christmas meme! 

(My boys, by the way, are now skeptical that Christmas is ever actually coming.  We've been talking about it and preparing for it for so long now (three weeks is pretty much forever for a preschooler), that now when we say anything about Christmas coming, they look at us like, "Whatever.  I'll believe it when I see it.")

1. What was your favorite gift you received as a child?

Hmmm, that's hard.  Goldfish?  My parents gave me two goldfish one year, plus a glass fishbowl and some marbles for the bottom.  The entire gift probably cost about $1.99.  I named them George and Martha.

Actually, my favorite "gift" that I received as a child is probably all my great memories of Christmas with my family, and lots of fun traditions that I can now do with my own kids.  Corny, yes.  But there it is.

2. What has been your favorite gift you've received as an adult?

I'm gonna change this one a little and tell you about a gift I gave. 

About seven years ago DVD players were still a bit of a new thing, and Beloved really wanted one.  But we were both in school and money was really tight.  I don't remember how I managed to find some extra money, but I bought him a DVD player and the movie Platoon.  When he unwrapped the movie, he said, "This is great!  Now someday when we can get a DVD player, I can actually watch it!"  And then I pulled out the DVD player.  Ta-dah!  He was really truly surprised and really truly pleased, which was so fun.

3. What is your wish for the future?

I would love to have more Christmas celebrations with our parents.  My official wish is for health and lots of time to enjoy with family!

Christmas Bible Reading with Sparkle

Sparkle loves reading the Bible.

I must say, it has very little to do with our parenting influence.  (Pumpkin avoids Bible stories.  He'll even say, "Don't read me the God book, Mom," take away the Bible, and give me a book about dump trucks instead, which I find so, so great.)

I am not sure why Sparkle is so into the Bible, but I think it might be because it's pretty much the most violence he's ever been exposed to.  Daniel is thown into a den of lions, Peter cuts off a soldier's ear, Jesus is crucified.  It's fascinating stuff.

He asks really detailed questions, and I often don't know the answers.  Since we usually read from one of our two children's Bibles, he'll bring me an NIV and tell me, "Mom, read it from the grown-up Bible," and then sit quietly, listening intently, hoping to catch whatever information was missing from the children's story.  He can remember what I think are pretty complicated story lines.  For example, he can mostly remember that Joseph was thrown into a well, then sold into slavery, then lived in Potiphar's house, then went to jail, and then became a ruler in Egypt.  (The broader timelines, like the fact that Jesus lived long, long after Noah, he doesn't really get.  Maybe I should make an actual timeline to hang on a wall or something.  He would probably like that, but I think I might feel like a pushy-crazy-Bible-thumping parent.) 

He can process and interpret things pretty well sometimes.  Recently we were reading about Joseph, and we mostly talked about how even when things looked pretty horrible for him Joseph trusted God, and God was still watching over him, still in control, and still loved Joseph.  Just out of curiosity, I asked him later, "Why do you think Joseph's brothers were angry with him?"  (something we hadn't really talked about) and he thought for a few seconds and then said, "They were mad because they wanted a coat, too."

He's always been interested in the Christmas story (here's a post about Sparkle reading the Christmas story last year). 

Recently we read one of our little children's Christmas books that talked about the shepherds worshipping Jesus.  "What does "worshipping" mean?" my sweet, amazing four-year-old asked me.  (Man, this kid...  He absolutely keeps me on my toes every minute!)  I kind of stumbled for second, trying to think of definition that didn't include any words like "praise" or "glory."  So I ended up saying, "Worshipping God is when we tell Him that we know he is the best and the strongest and the biggest."  (I think that was a pretty good definition, on the fly.  To me, anyway, worship means acknowledging to God that we know he is God, and we're not.)

He looked puzzled for a second and said, "But, Mom...  Jesus wasn't the strongest and the biggest.  He was just a baby."

And I just teared right up a bit...  I told him, "You are absolutely right.  That is a really amazing thing, isn't it?"

My Sparkle...  He's so, so fabulous.  I'm sure this is true for people of all faith traditions (or even none), but I find parenting is such a surprisingly spiritual experience.  How many times have I heard, "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us" or "Hail the incarnate diety!" in Christmas songs or services?  Who knows.  A lot.  But looking at the story from the new perspective of my own child makes it more real to me.  The Biggest and Strongest God became the smallest and weakest, just so he could be with us, just so he could show us that he loves us.

Okay, so I have a bit more to say about dicussing the violence in the Bible with a four-year-old, but I better quit now and hit post before I get all church-y and all my many, oh-so-many readers are thinking, "Sheesh, I just wanted to see the pictures of your living room..."

(In this picture, Sparkle is helping to decorate the house for Christmas by putting Christmas stickers on our paper napkins.) 

Wonderful Christmas

So, Christmas is over...  I love the Christmas feeling of anticipation, and I love Christmas day itself.  On the 26th I was sad that Christmas is done for the year. 

Today I am over it.  The tree is dropping needles every time we walk by.  I have a few days off before the new year, and I want to enjoy them, but I feel like I can't relax until all the Christmas stuff is put away.

We have been deliberate about reading the Christmas story from the Bible a few times (not just reading children's books about the birth of Jesus, though we have plenty of those).  Sparkle remembers quite a bit of the passages word for word, which is amazing to me. 

Yesterday Sparkle was playing with some Christmas stickers.  He put angel stickers on about seven of his fingertips, held his hands up in the air and said, "Look, Mom!  Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace!" 

I have to tell you, I teared up a little bit right there.  I love, LOVE to watch him learn Bible stories, and I love his perspective as a three year old just beginning to understand those stories a little bit. 

His favorite part of the Christmas Bible story right now is the part where King Herod wanted to hurt baby Jesus, but an angel warned Joseph, and so the family ran away to Egypt and was safe.  A part of me is annoyed that we have to talk about this so much.  I wish he was more interested in the parts of the story that are fascinating to me!  But I am trying to remember that what is important is what he is interested in.  So we emphasize how Joseph took care of his family, how he listened to the angel and obeyed, and how God watched over them.  For now, those are the important points for him, though it seems simplistic.

On Christmas morning we ate cinnamon toast and hot chocolate for breakfast.  I let the boys add their own marshmallows to their hot chocolate, and they thought that was a great idea!  Giant fistfuls of marshmallows!  Yum!  (I tried to put the picture of Pumpkin here, but it ended up at the top of the post.)

(The other picture above shows the preparation of the Christmas morning cinnamon toast.  And I can't believe I just posted a picture of myself wearing pajamas on a blog...)

They didn't get a ton of presents (though they certainly received great plenty).  The biggest hits were little wooden trucks and cars that Grandma got at Ikea for $1 each, I think.  They also opened a lot of books. (Some of their new books were recommended by cloudscome at a wrung sponge.  If you're not already watching her blog for reviews of children's books, you should be!)

Overall, I think we accomplished our goals for the Christmas season this year: lots of family time, some learning of the Bible's Christmas story, an emphasis on giving gifts (both to our immediate family and also to share our blessings with other people whom God loves), and repeating some traditions we hope to build as a family.  And good food, and fun, and lots of pictures!

I hope your holiday season, whichever holiday you celebrate (and even if you don't celebrate), was as happy as ours. 

Does everyone have this week off?  Work today was crazy for me, but the boys only had six or so kids in their classes, and Beloved said almost no one was at work today in his office.  We have a few more days of vacation coming up, and I plan to post some pictures in the next few days. 

If you're at work, I hope it's an "easy" week for you!  If you are home, enjoy your vacation!

Chex Mix

Sparkle helped me make Chex Mix last weekend.  We put the pans on the floor, and Sparkle very carefully poured cereal into each one.  It took forever, but it was cute how hard he was concentrating. 

At one point he spilled a million Cheerios on the floor.  He immediately ran for the little broom and dustpan (What a good boy!), and swept up a bunch of them, but instead of dumping them into the garbage, he dumped them back into the pan!  I was not about to try to pick all the Cheerios out of a pan of cereal, so I bit my tongue.

So if you're coming to my house, avoid the Chex Mix, but don't tell anyone else, OK?

Nutcracker

We took the boys to see the Nutcracker this evening.  They knew we were going "to a ballet" and we would see "lots of people dancing," but they really had no idea what it would be like. 

We tried to prep Sparkle a bit by saying, "When we get there, we will find the bathroom and go before the ballet starts.  After it starts, we have to stay in our seats."  Sparkle thought for a second and then asked, "Will we have to fasten our seat belts?" 

Yes, baby, fasten your seat belt; the Nutcracker is quite a show.

I had not seen the Nutcracker for quite a while, and it was soon obvious that we should have done some additional prep work with Sparkle. 

He was a little nervous when the lights dimmed.  He was interested and quiet during the first scenes of the Christmas party.

Then came the scene (which in hindsight I should have remembered, and realized that it would be frightening) where the little rats were crawling around on the floor and the big huge scary Rat King had a sword and almost stabbed Clara.  Then the soldier dancers fired some little cannons, and Sparkle freaked the freakin' freak out!

"I want to go home!  I don't like the ballet!  It's too loud!  I think it's time to go now!  I think the ballet is over and we need to go now!"

Finally he calmed down slightly and then the stupid cannons fired AGAIN, and Sparkle FREAKED the FREAKIN' FREAK OUT!!!

So I took him out in the hallway.  Poor baby, he wanted to leave.  He said we should go home and come back to get Daddy and Pumpkin later.  He suggested maybe we could wait for them in the car.  But I didn't have our coats or the keys, so we had to wait.

At intermisson, we had a hurried debate over the merits of staying vs going.  In the end we came to a compromise.  Sparkle thought it might be okay to try sitting way, way in the back, far away from the dancers and any potentially dangerous rodents on the stage.  This worked out great.  Way in the back, with the next audience member at least four rows in front of us, we could all talk about what was happening, and we weren't shushing the kids so much.

Of course, now that we had a solution with Sparkle, Pumpkin had maxed out.  He started wiggling and squirming and squealing and rolling happily on the nasty auditorium floor.  It was time to go.

And then, of course, Sparkle was horrified that we were going to leave!  Before the end!  It wasn't over!  See? SEE?!  The dancers were still dancing! 

We gave him a five minute warning, and we were able to leave without either child completely melting down again. 

Our parenting nerves were a little fried, though.

Sheesh...  Merry Christmas, indeed.