We started decorating for Christmas last Monday. Monkey May had a great birthday. I still can’t believe she is two. Wait, let me rephrase that…I can’t believe Jake and I survived two years as parents! She has definitely presented us with some challenges and has been a little stubborn troublemaker on a very frequent basis. In all reality, she has been such a blessing and is such an amazing little person. We are so proud of everything she has taught us in the last two years and are so blessed to have such a sparkling happy little girl in our lives each and every day.
One of our first projects was hanging stickers on the windows. My mom gave us the pictures that she had when we were kids. Kenzie had a blast decorating the doors. She was so amazed but the scene we created. We had a wonderful talk about each and every item that we hung up to make our doors very Christmas-y. She counted the number of chickens and sheep, told me the sounds all the animals made, and helped get the snowflakes to stick.
I had the best conversation with Monkey May the next morning. I’ll share with you just how it went:
Momma: “Hey Kenz, who is that?”
Monkey May: “That’s Baby Jesus’ daddy”
Momma: “That’s right Kenz…that’s Joseph”
Monkey May: “Yep, that’s Joseph”
Momma: “Who’s that Kenz?”
Monkey May: “That’s Baby Jesus’ momma”
Momma:” Good job kiddo…that’s Mary”
Monkey May: “Yep, That’s Mary”
Momma: “One more …who’s that?”
She stared at the next two people for a moment and thought really hard “That’s the sheep’s daddy!”
Momma: ‘That’s right! Those are the shepherds”
Monkey May: “Yep the sheep’s daddy”
Momma: “The Shepherds take care of the sheep. And the Shepherds went to see Baby Jesus when he was born."
Monkey May: "The sheep see Baby Jesus."
Then she did the cutest thing. She took off one of the sheep from it's place on the window and stood on her tippy-toes and tried to stick him by Baby Jesus. In that moment, my heart was so overjoyed. Here Monkey May just turned two and we have just started talking about the Christmas story and she gets it. She gets that there is something special about Baby Jesus. She understands that everyone and especially the sheep wanted to go and see Baby Jesus in the manger. You know we talk all the time about how special the Wise men and the Shepherds must have been felt coming to Bethlehem to visit Baby Jesus, but what about the sheep and horses and donkeys and cattle and chickens? Now that I think about it, I'm sure they knew they were experiencing something special. I never really gave it much thought and I'm so thankful that my little girl made me stop and take a moment to give praise for
I am so excited for Monkey May to show such excitement about the true reason for the Christmas season. I am really looking forward Christmas to get here. I am excited for Christmas Eve service. I love celebrating Christmas at midnight with our Church Family. There is such a special feeling in the air, such a magical closeness with that first Christmas. I am really looking forward to Kenzie opening a special present on Christmas morning. I am looking forward to our family reading the first Christmas story in Kenzie's Bible. I hope everyone else is starting to feel the specialness of Christmas in their hearts. I hope God blesses each and every one of your families this Christmas season.
oh, that gave me goosebumps. Children can teach us so much. Your story has made me stop to think about how special this time of year is. Just like M is very special and her excitement over everything is so contagious. You make me stop and think about how special our lives are. Merry Christmas Honey.
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