Time goes by

With Christmas already passed and the new year just a few hours away, I am filled with joy to have such a wonderful family. I miss Bud. He's in school for a few months. It makes home life complicated. However today was an exceptional day. Pa Pa is here visiting. He made an effort to go outside with Faith today and help her chisle away at a talc brick filled with rocks and gems. Faith found a total of 9 gems. She chisled through the entire brick and was excited with her finds. She never gave up nor complained of being tired. She continued to say that it was hard work. But when she found a stone it encouraged her to continue. The investment was $13 but well worth the time and experience for her. She discovered something new that she enjoys. Pa Pa says that we are going to take the gems and make a bracelet or necklace. I agree. It will be a beautiful piece of jewelry.

The Day and Night Before Christmas

I can't believe that it is here. I can't believe that we are all together this year. Both of my parents and Bud are all here. It is going to be a wonderful day tomorrow. We have so many friends and family that care about us. Today Faith and I were glued to each other as we baked sugar cookies and frosted and decorated them. The spoons and bowls were delicious as we are both known to love cookie dough and icing. We danced to some fun Christmas music; must be Santa by Bob Dylan. Such a fun song. We worked together on a hard GeoPuzzle she received at school. We read a few stories including our favorite story for tonight's occasion; The Night Before Christmas. I wish that today didn't have to end. I love this time of year. Everyone is happy. Faith has since retired to bed for the evening. She is excited for Santa's arrival. She only asked for one thing and that was a Zhu Zhu Pet. I hope she is happy when she receives it. I can't think of any other times I am as happy as when I am with her doing mommy things. I can't do those types of things with Champ yet. He has no interest in them. I remember when Faith was his age for Christmas. We were in Motown and there she was up there on the stepstool licking the spoon just like she was this afternoon. The joy of Christmas time makes me realize just how little our children are and just how precious they are. They believe in miracles and magic. They believe that nothing will ever happen to them as long as they have their mommy and daddy. The world has not yet made an impression on them. To have them little forever would only be a dream. Merry Christmas to all and to all a goodnight.

Angels we have heard on high...

And an angel fell from the sky on Saturday. Her hair was a light as the sun. Her eyes were as blue as the forget me nots. She fell for the love of snow. And when all was said and done, she made a beautiful snow angel in the driveway. The first snow of the year came and went. But Faith made they best out of it by making snow angels, a snow castle for her princess and lots of snowballs to throw at the front door. Oh what just a little dusting of snow does for a child. To see the world through a child's eyes is to realize that life is too short to not live life to the fullest.

The missing pocket

Faith notices such fine details. When we were reading a story to Champ the other night Dora was trying to find her mother's shopping list for the store. It seemed that it had been misplaced along their trip to the store. As the story wrapped up the second to last page said that Boots had put the note into his pocket. When they crossed the river he didn't want it to fall into the water. "Mommy, that is so silly. Boots doesn't have any pockets. He doesn't wear pants." I thought for a moment. "Your right. He doesn't have pants." Why did the story say anything about a pocket when he doesn't wear any clothes. I just love her so much. I wonder how Bud and I raised such a pleasant enjoyable little girl?

Storytime live

Tonight Faith and I opted out of the usual storytime and ventured into town to visit a local church. What a beautiful sight. Neither of us had seen anything like it. There was the manger. A lonely donkey grazed in the hay. A sheep and goat stood next to each other grazing on grasses and a talk oxen stood ever so quiet in the corner. Faith quickly went to pet the animals. A live nativity just like the one Jesus was born in thousands of years ago. Just as it was to begin a large camel came walking up draped in the most beautiful red sequence that the eyes have seen. The Magi's camel had arrived. Everything was set. The speaker began reading the story from the Bible and Faith was intent on listening. It was a blistering 25 degrees out but her snow pants, coat, mittens, hat and scarf kept her warm. The small choir sang songs such as Hark the Herald Angels Sing, Go Tell it on the Mountain, Silent Night, etc. It was beautiful. Baby Jesus came swaddled in a leather skin while the shepards came with there shepard's hook. I wish I could have seen the birth of our Savior. It would have been a sight to never forget. But I supposed that it was Christians who made it seem possible for us to be there today as we watched in awe the miracle that happened on that Christmas night.

Score!!

Faith's teacher approached me yesterday at school. I knew that any day Faith would be having her reading evaluation. There were 52 words on her list to read and Faith read an amazingly 49 correct. Her teacher said she remembered the rules taught to her and even remember most of the sight words. A few just didn't follow either rule and those were hard. I know that she is going to become a great reader. She shows interest in trying to read bigger books now. I love our school. I worry about the day we move to another school in another state. Will that school program recognize Faith's special abilities or will she get lost in the crowd? I hope that after just a few weeks they will notice her and enjoy her as much as her teacher's do now. She was introduced to subtraction yesterday at school and that seemed easy enough for her. I just can't get it into my head that she is only 4 and not actually supposed to be in kindergarten yet. She missed the cutoff my 6 months. She definitely belongs in this class. Any other would not do her learning any justice.

Christmas caroling

Faith's first opportunity at Christmas caroling came last weekend. We visited town hall in our small town and caroled on a small stage for local town folk. Only a handful of her friends made it. It was very cold outside. However they sang three songs which consisted on "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth", "Rudolph the Red nosed Reindeer" and "Santa Clause is coming to town" It was too cute. Champ and I watched from the sidelines. Santa made a surprise visit in the police car. Faith wasn't too excited about him. She informed me that she had already spoken with him. So she said hi to him and received a candy cane but not much conversation happened between the two. I love Christmas time but I do have to say it doesn't quite feel like Christmas this year with Bud leaving on Monday.

Mary and Joseph

Tonight is the night of our Christmas celebration in which Faith is Mary while her chorus of kindergarteners sing Silent Night and We Three Kings. It is exciting as she gets to wear a costume to portray the mother of Jesus. What a priviledge to be asked to play this part. I'm a little bummed that she is not singing the two songs but she rejoins her class to finish off with Go Tell it on the Mountain and the finale of Go Light Your World. I am totally stoked for this evenings performance. Even my class did a run through yesterday and I got chills just listening to them all. I love our school. It really has to be the best school imaginable filled with the best teachers one could find to nurtur and love their children. I will be so sad the day we say farewell. Until then, "Go Tell it on the mountain that Jesus Christ is born." I love Christmas time and singing.

What the...

The entire phrase "What the ________" came out of Faith's little mouth the other night. My jaw dropped. I knew where she heard it. Bud says it all the time under his breath. Thinking that the kids don't hear it, we found out that they do. Upon speaking with her teacher I discovered that someone was saying that in her kindergarten class. So Faith was taken to her room for a discussion and upon further investigation we decided that she did not realize the severity of the phrase that she had said. However had someone not spoken to her about she would have continued to say it. I had to tell her the story of myself when I was little and had to bite a soap bar for having a dirty mouth. "Mommy, did you have to wash it out because it was dirty with words?" I said, "Yes Faith and this is your warning on that phrase. If I or your teacher hear from you again your mouth will be washed clean with some soap." "ooo yuck!" and our conversation was ended. I sometimes think that she would never say stuff like that but children say what they hear.

A ripe jolly ol' elf

His name is Santa Clause but we call them Santa's specially picked helpers in the store. When it came to Santa last year, he was everywhere. But what really pushed my button was when were at the mall and Santa was the overall casual one, then we went to the grocery store and he was fat, white and in his red suit, and lastly we went to Walmart and he was black, skinny and in a red suit. Faith immediately picked up on this fact because she is a bright little girl and since then it was explained that the real Santa is at the North Pole working as hard as he can for Christmas. She believed it. Saved....this time. So when we went to the garden center we first enjoyed all of the colorful trees, ornaments, cookies and water fountains. Santa arrived a little late. Said he got caught in the wind outside and his sleigh almost went off course. Such a nice little elf this time around. Last year I thought that I would be scarred for life with the Santa at the fire station but he saved the day this year. He was so long winded but he made Faith feel special. Did she remember that he was Santa's helper....probably not because her stare was intense and she talked with him like he was the real thing.