Lessons and Carols

Ollie had his first Christmas performance last night. He sings in the 3 year old choir at church rightfully called the "Joyful Noise" choir. We drove back from Dothan to be in town for this big show. All the kids- age 3- 5th grade- performed different songs since it was the first Sunday of Advent. Here's Ollie's big debut (he's on the top left):

Ollie's group did sing one other song, but Ollie didn't sing in that one, either. The kicker is that this child was singing all afternoon. As in, we couldn't make him STOP singing. I even said, "I'm so glad you're in a singing mood! We're going to church (his favorite place) to sing for Jesus!". I think those dang jingle bells had him in a tizzy. By the time he finally got them untangled, the song was over.

The name of the program was "Lessons and Carols". While the children read the "lessons" from the birth story of Christ, I learned a few lessons of my own.

• Ollie does not give a rip about performing unless it's on his terms. He was very loud and entertaining through the rest of the performance- including starting the clapping by screaming "YAYYY!!" when one other group was done.


• Three is not the ideal age to ask a child to sit quietly- especially after they have been on a 6 hour car ride home. I had to keep coming up with ideas for things for Ollie to do. I was unsure about this format, but basically, Ollie's group went first and then we had to sit for another 40-ish minutes. Ugh. Painful. He was NOT using his inside voice and everything sounded like this, "MOOMMMEE... thump". That thump was the sound of my hand clasping over his mouth- constantly. Thankfully there were a lot of songs in there to muffle his loud talking entertain him, but there was also a lot of prayer and reading.


• The biggest lesson of all: Do NOT draw rockets for your children to color on the prayer cards. Why? They might lead to mass embarrassment. Ollie had done a quiet 5,4,3,2,1 at the rocket, colored the rocket, then the final prayer was happening- YES!- light at the end of the torture, um, I mean, wonderful meaningful service. Then, without my hand over his mouth- what was I thinking??- I hear, "Make it go FASTER!!". Yes, that's right. Ollie was not using his inside voice either. And it was the new pastor who I do not know who was praying. Oh. My. Word.

Well, I've always prayed that I would not have shy children (don't ask me why- I just don't understand shyness). I think God answered this one with a big resounding, "Sure thing, Momma!". And He obviously has a good sense of humor about things. Thank goodness all of the people there have small children and really enjoyed that it was me and not them the entertainment.

Here are my cute little matching guys in front of the tree at church. Yes, that's my hand forcing them together. Uh huh. You know I'll do anything for a picture.

Happy first Sunday of Advent (or week of Advent since it's Monday)! I've got a new advent calendar and I'm excited about preparing for the birth of Jesus! My favorite sign in town is the one at the Episcopal Church down the road that lights big electric candles each week of Advent and they have a huge sign in front of the Advent wreath that says, "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel". I can't say it any better myself! Amen!