Christmas Pageant

Christmas pageant at church. The kids were very excited - not only because they got to dress up in costumes, but we haven't been to church in, ahem, a bit too long (and here's the part where I complain about Joe's school and my school and Joe's softball team and my graduate thesis and, ahem ahem, blah blah blah.)

Holden started out as a Wise Man...

But wound up as an angel, just like his big sister, when he saw how awesome the wings and halo were.

The kids up on stage. We're talking seriously adorable.

After church, and for the first time ever, Scarlett wanted to talk about baby Jesus...and then adult Jesus. We had a very nice talk. I explained that He was a wonderful man that helped a lot of people and that's why people go to church - to celebrate Him. Scarlett said how she thought that must make Jesus' heart very happy. Then she wanted to know His story. And so I gave a very preschool-friendly lesson on the life of Jesus. Scarlett asked if she could talk about Jesus at school. And so I gave a very preschool-friendly explanation of the separation of church and state. I told Scarlett that other mommies and daddies might want to tell their kids another version of His story and we wouldn't want interfere with that. So then she asked if she could talk about Him with her teachers. Curious to know what she had retained from our little talk, I asked her what she would say to her teachers about Jesus. "Well...I'd say he's DEAD," Scarlett said. And so we're not going to talk about Jesus to teachers, either. At least not until we have a little more Jesus under our four-year-old belt. But, I'd say it was a successful start.