The Happy Birthday Jesus Party...

On December 16, the day before the flu hit, I attended Madison's Christmas program at "Wee Ones" preschool.

All of the little ones--known as "The Angel Band"--marched into the building wearing t-shirts that they'd helped to decorate. So cute!

Then they sang a total of four short songs for us, which were just precious--especially one called "Two By Two" where they did imitations of the animals on Noah's ark. I took a little video of Madison singing, but have yet to figure out how to get it off my camera and on to this blog...maybe one day!

I was so excited to get to see all of the little ones perform on stage, but I received much more than I anticipated--I received a blessing-and a reminder of what Christmas is all about.

There was a birthday cake for Jesus, and everything about the cake represented something. *The cake was chocolate--to symbolize our sin. *The cake was covered with white frosting--to symbolize that Jesus' purity covers our sins. *The cake was topped with a star and an angel--to symbolize the bearer of the first glad tidings. *There were 12 candles to represent that Christ is our light throughout the year. *The cake was encircled with evergreens to represent everlasting life. Wasn't that neat? I thought so!

After the program was finished, all of the children gathered around the table at the back of the room, sang "Happy Birthday, Jesus", then blew out the candles together. It was the sweetest thing I've seen in a long time--and it definitely reminded me of "the real reason for the season"!

One of the most impressive things to me, was how those teachers managed to teach 18 four-year-olds to keep jingle bells quiet in their hands until it was time to ring them! Now that's a feat!!! If you've ever worked with little ones, you'll know what I mean.

Below is a close-up of Madison wearing her "Angel Band" t-shirt. I just loved it, and was so proud of my daughter for helping to make those shirts!

I Hope You Had a Merry Christmas...and a Happy New Year...

Let me begin by apologizing again for my extended absence on this blog. December 17 arrived, and the flu arrived along with it! This wasn't just any old flu--or maybe it was, and I just didn't realize it since I'd never had the flu before.

Anyway, that flu bug knocked me off my feet for just over two weeks--literally! I ate, I drank, and I slept--and watched television. That was pretty much it for two solid weeks.

I'm feeling better now, thank goodness, so I'm trying to get back to the business of blogging. I'm still not feeling my old self though.

Granddaughter, Madison, had the flu the same time I did. She began to feel better a few days before I did--I'll chalk that up to our age difference! LOL For a while, she was a sick little girl, though.

Neither one of us could think of anything that we wanted to eat while we were sick, so both Maddie and I came out of the flu experience a few pounds lighter--which was not a bad thing for either of us, since we are "well-padded"! We had plenty of fat to sustain us through those days of not being hungry...

Christmas came and went. Fortunately, Madison and I were feeling well enough to celebrate--then I had a relapse. I didn't feel like celebrating New Years, but little Madison stayed up to see the New Year come in. I, on the other hand, was in bed asleep!

Today is Maddie's first day back to nursery school, and she was ready to go! I think she missed her friends and her teacher. I haven't seen her since she got back from school, but I'm hoping she had a good morning.

In just a few hours, she'll be off to dance class! I just know she's excited about that since she got a "frog princess" dance bag and an Angelina Ballerina doll for Christmas...My bet is that she will take both things with her to dance class!

I haven't seen my favorite little man, Caden, since Christmas Day. I'm sure he's grown a couple of inches since then. I'm looking forward to feeling stronger, and getting reacquainted with him soon.

Before I have Caden over again, I really need to bring the pretend kitchen back into the house. He asked where it was every time he visited during the month of December! Who knew that he loved to cook so much?

Have no fear, little man, I'm working on getting the Christmas decorations put away...As soon as I do--I'll bring the kitchen back inside! We'll even find that "pop-up" toaster that you like so much!