One Couple's Stumblings Through Parenthood and Marriage

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

A Christmas Story

A couple of days ago Annie was out getting some last-minute shopping done, so I had the girls to myself. I decided to use this time to tell the real Christmas story to them.

I had the twins sit down on their couch in front of me, and Julia sat in my lap. I then launched into a dramatic rendering of the nativity story (using three-year-old vernacular). When I mentioned that Mary and Joseph couldn't find a room, Genna piped in, "I know! I'll find a room for dem!" Very sweet.

I then continued by describing the manger scene, complete with an ox, donkey, and some sheep. Kate got a scared look on her face, and asked, "Did the sheep bite baby Jesus?"
"No," I replied. "They were very nice sheep."
Genna then said something that warmed my heart and made all our Christmas efforts worthwhile. "Baby Jesus is so precious! I love baby Jesus. He is so cute!"

Very nice. They're still into the whole Santa/Rudolph thing, but at least they knew that yesterday was Christ's birthday.

4 comments:

Chelsa said...

We actually heard this whole thing on NPR the other day about how Christ's actual birthday was a matter for a great deal of debate, and that the most likely thing is that he was born sometime in the spring, since the shepherds were out in the fields at night and that only happened in the spring or early summer. It was pretty interesting.

Raging Wombat said...

In the LDS church, we believe that Christ was born on April 6, which would coincide with a lot of modern scholarship (like the show that you mentioned). I didn't feel like getting into that specific detail with Kate and Genna. :)

Chelsa said...

That's okay, because Ian and I downloaded them a transcript of the NPR show for Christmas. I think they'll really like it. It won't be boring or confusing at all.

Raging Wombat said...

Our girls absolutely love NPR evening (Tuesdays). Thanks!