Pagent Frenzy

I never had a spare moment to write about our Christmas Eve.  The boys all went to see a movie and I stayed home to get Primary things ready for tomorrow and catch up on laundry...so now I can tell our story of excited chaos.  We pulled out the silk headscarves we use for every costume and my running headbands to hold them on.  M was the angel, J was the inn keeper, P was Joseph, I was Mary and S was supposed to be the one and only shepherd.  I thought he would like this because he would get to hold a sheep.  But the angel was jumping from chair to couch (to demonstrate flying of course), the inn keeper was so excited to deny any room to couple (he had been practicing all afternoon) that he was now talking in a screaming shout, and when I called the shepherd to come get his lamb he said, "I not a shepherd, I am LEMUEL!"  Lemuel???  Yep.  He insisted that we were "a whole family of Lemuels".  M wanted to know how he even knew about Lemuel...I told him that NOTHING escapes this 2  year old.  And we did look like Lemuels - with scarves on our heads.  
When he realized that Joseph got to ride the donkey, he decided that was more fun and INSISTED that he now needed to be Joseph.  He jumped on our donkey and yelled "Giddy-up Donkey!"  and off to Bethlehem he went.  We finally (and gratefully) finished reading our book and acting our play.  Peter ended with a nice message, we ALL sang Silent Night (even S sang!), and ended with a good night prayer.  M suggested Daddy read one Christmas book on the couch before they went to bed.
So we picked our favorite - Little Porcupine's Christmas.  And when Peter read that the little porcupine's parents loved him so much, calling him a "Shiney, Spiney, Star" he got emotional and told our boys how much he loves them.  They sat and listed to every word of that book, cuddled up so tight, faces beaming with smiles as their Daddy told them how much he loves them!  Calm and quiet now, we headed down to bed to get ready for Santa.

...whom by the way M told me this morning he believes in again!