Last week we kept Esther in the church service with us. She had been sick off and on during Thanksgiving week, including running a moderate fever on Thanksgiving evening, and she was still producing a hacking cough from time to time (without covering her mouth, naturally), so we were already debating whether she should be in with the other children. Then she ran another slight fever on Saturday evening, which sealed the deal. She did pretty well in the service--lots of wiggling and murmuring (mostly on the theme of "I want a bagel!"), but not loud enough to disturb any but our most immediate neighbors. I carried her with us when we went up to take communion. Of course when she saw the pieces of bread and little cups of juice, she asked, "May I have some?" I explained that this was special and she had to wait until she got bigger before she could eat it. She looked a little skeptical, so I whispered to her a little more about how the bread reminds us of when Jesus told his friends that some bread was his body, and that the juice reminds us of when Jesus told his friends that some wine was his blood. I added that Mommy and Daddy eat the bread and drink the juice to show that we want to follow Jesus. To which Esther responded, "May I follow Jesus?" I know she just wanted the bread, but it made me tear up! (I can't remember how I answered that--I think I might have said that yes, she could follow Jesus, but she still had to wait until she was bigger before she had the bread and juice.)
On Sunday evening we put up our Christmas tree. When we plugged in the lights for the first time, Esther grinned from ear to ear and started singing "Happy Birthday to you!" So we sang Happy Birthday to Jesus, and then Esther tried to blow out the lights. She was a little surprised when it didn't work.
Later that night we broke out our advent wreath. We have scripture readings for each night of advent--meaningful, but rather lengthy, and definitely not chosen with a two-year-old in mind. So we settled Esther with a handful of chocolate chips and a good view of the lit candle, and that worked pretty well. She stayed in her seat, and only occasionally interrupted with a "Happy Birthday to you!" She enthusiastically blew out the candle (with some help) when we were finished. Then she enjoyed sitting on the couch between us while we sang O Come, O Come Emmanuel. She hasn't quite gotten to the point yet where she can carry a tune (although she's getting close on Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star), and she didn't know the words, but that didn't stop her from vocalizing with gusto for a line or two. Then she got bored and squirmed down off the couch to go do something else.
We've continued including Esther in our advent readings this week, with the exception of a couple of late nights, and it's pretty special to have her joining in the tradition, even if she doesn't fully understand it yet. She was also able to help decorate the tree this year, and she has done much better than I expected at leaving the ornaments on the tree once they were put up. She will occasionally take one off the tree to admire it, but she hasn't been strewing them around the house. It's so fun sharing Christmas with her!
We're also doing a December count-down calendar with a nativity scene (she adds one character to the scene each day, with baby Jesus being the last one on December 25th), a special early gift from Aunt Debby.
The next tradition I'm looking forward to sharing with Esther is making sugar cookies! But today we have something at least equally fun--it's snowing!! And Esther just woke up from her afternoon nap, so I'm going to give her a snack, bundle her up, and take her out to play.
