Christmas 2010 Highlights

1. Annabelle's favorite book was "Sheila Rae's Peppermint Stick" by Kevin Henkes. It was a hand-me-down from "the little girls" next door, Chloe and Camille. She could recite many of the pages from memory. She was so good at it that hubby thought she was actually reading it one night.

2. Annabelle referred to angels as fairies.

3. At Oak Grove UMC's Family Fun Night/Birthday Party for Jesus, Annabelle decorated a white gift bag with nativity stickers. She set up the nativity scene at the bottom of the gift bag with Baby Jesus, Mary, Joseph, a cow, a donkey and a palm tree. She even found a random piece that wasn't an actual sticker, but held the stickers together, and placed it on top of Jesus' head. She said it was Baby Jesus' party hat. It was shaped somewhat like a triangle. She placed stars in the sky and colored the sky blue with a blue marker. She placed an angel above Baby Jesus, and outlined the angel sticker with a pink marker. Then, above the angel (as if off in the distance), she placed her three wise men. She gave each wise man a camel to ride on as they were each standing on their respective camel. Somehow the shepherd became a wise man, but she realized later she had done that without anyone else pointing it out. It is amazing how children this young picture the Christmas Story. The visual image in her mind is more accurate than the nativity scene that we all set out every Christmas.