Christmas Season 2009

The Christmas Season this year will always be remembered as a year of transition...

For our oldest, Ethan, who is now 12, it's the last year of childhood...soon to be followed by the teen years. And because he's now in middle school, he's no longer involved in all the little kid stuff that goes on at church. Never again will he be our little angel with the tinsel crown, no more dressing up as one of the three wise men, no more children's choir.

And Ethan also really enjoyed the youth group stuff at church, highlighted by a gift exchange which was supposed to be a 'white elephant' affair. This didn't always translate well into the arcane language of the 7th or 8th grade mind, which made the whole thing much funnier. As the kids broke into their cell groups of 8 or 10 people, I saw cheap plastic toys (who knew they made no-name-brand slinkies?) and candy, a mechanical battery-operated crescent wrench, even a used basketball.

For Isaac, 2009 was a season of . He kept his parents running. First, he sang with the Jackson Children's Chorale Choir, which had the opportunity to sing with the Jackson Adult Chorale Choir as they were backed by the Jackson Symphony Orchestra...the whole production was amazing, but the day was packed. The minute the concert was finished, Ethan and I pushed our way frantically through the crowd to find him and haul him to the church so he could change transform into one of the three wise men via the magic of the bath robe. We just barely made it with perhaps two minutes to spare...whew!!!

And then came Gillian. Not quite age 3, she's our handful of joy (more handful than we can manage at times) and she's at a different stage of transition, not quite baby, not quite little kid. My wife and I woke her up from a nap to get her changed as quickly as possible from pajamas to tights and a dress, and again, just made it with about two minutes to spare.

Still sleepy and half in a daze, Gillian walked with the other two year olds down the central aisle of the dark church into the spotlights, all eyes on the children as they were herded into position by adult workers desperately hoping to get them to sit still...and of course, you could feel the smiles of the watching adults, all wondering how successful the whole thing would turn out.

The minute the two year olds were in position, the overhead screen displayed them seated on the steps where they sat...which was discovered by one little girl who was completely delighted to see herself and all her friends on two giant t.v. screens.

And her attention from that point on was completely lost.

But the show must go on, and so it did. Gillian, however, was too exhausted to sing anything, and she ended up first sitting on the steps staring half awake out at the crowd, then watching the kids around her do the motions to "Away In a Manger" which my wife had practiced with her for days.

So glad she had all that practice...so we could watch her sit there and watch everyone else...