Thursday, December 10, 2009

Boy Jesus....

This memory pops into my mind randomly throughout the year, but at Christmastime, I think of it often.

In December 1995, Austin was asked to play boy Jesus in our church Christmas musical. Austin's wasn't a speaking part, only a visual during a song where the wisemen and shepherds had finally arrived in Bethlehem to honor Jesus. How excited we were for Austin to have a part in the musical. I play in the orchestra, so I had a front row seat to watch him at rehearsals and he understood well what was expected and most importantly, he understood who he was portraying.

The first big night arrived. My call time was earlier than Austin's, so I went on ahead and Andy would bring him later. Ready to go, Andy buckled Austin into his car seat and off they went to the church. Austin was being very quiet and said he didn't feel good and that he didn't want to be boy Jesus anymore. Have you ever had to bribe your child into doing something? If you say you haven't .... I'm not sure I believe you :-), if you have - you know where this went next. It's the night of and ditching the boy Jesus gig is not an option. Good thing it was Andy with him and not me. I'm not very merciful, patience is not one of my virtues and I'm afraid boy Jesus might have gotten a little attitude adjustment. Andy begins the bribery, sugar pouring from his mouth - nothing but sweetness for our little boy Jesus actor. This was a whatever it takes situation here. Suddenly ... Austin threw up (in the car). Is there anything worse? Well, this might change things just a bit. Maybe he really was sick.

What happened next still, to this day, brings a tear to my eye. Austin was quite familiar with his Bible stories and knew who God was and who Jesus was. He knew that Jesus belonged in Heaven right beside God. In his innocent little mind, he thought that being boy Jesus in the musical meant that he would have to leave us and go to Heaven to be with God and he didn't want to leave his mommy and daddy. He had agonized over being boy Jesus and all that he thought went with it to the point of making himself sick.

We assured Austin that we would never leave him and that he would never have to leave us. Some days I'm ready to send his all-knowing 17 year old self out the door and on to college, but then there are those days that this story comes to mind and I'm reminded how cute and innocent he once was.

Pictures of boy Jesus below ... :-)



Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Bragg .... Party of 30

Thanksgiving was at our house again this year. This time, however, Thanksgiving was for both sides of our family!! Yes, there were 30!! Lots of people in one place at one time, but we had fun and everything went very smoothly. Everyone was well behaved (children and adults) and there was PLENTY of food for everyone to eat.

Our bonus room is a fun place for a kid to hang out. And since there were 10 children ranging in age from 4 to 11 (someone pass me a drink, please) .... there was a fair amount of time spent by them in the bonus room. There are dress up clothes galore, barbies too many to count, you could start a zoo with all the stuffed animals and of course there's the Wii, the electric keyboard, puzzles, games ... the list goes on and on. Lots of fun pics resulted from the wizards, fairies, powder puff girls, cowboys, lady bugs, etc etc that would emerge down the stairs awaiting approval of their outfit of choice. With that many kids, you'd think that clean up would be a cinch. Really? Why do kids dislike clean up so much? Of course, I think it was mostly the adults who got things back in order. Don't care who done it, just glad it got done. :-)

I am thankful for every single person that was there and I am thankful for having a home to provide for our gathering. I am so blessed. Hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving!!

Here's a picture from last year's pre-Thanksgiving feast. Fewer seats last year, but basically the same set up. (I forgot to take any pics this year.) We use real china, silver and crystal. Andy's mom provides all that stuff for me. Just have to run downstairs and pick it up. :-) I do name tags for each seat so people don't have to wander about and worry where to sit and I whip up a cute placemat in Publisher with a Happy Thanksgiving note and a Thanksgiving poem, print it out on white paper, back it with colorful construction paper to add a little color and flare to the table. :-) This year I also added a small amount of colorful confetti on the table.