The Most Wonderful Time of the Year....

Right now I am sitting here trying to get some work done since Brooke is refusing to go to bed. Oh no, she would rather play with Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus. You see, I just set up our Nativity sets and she sits there peering at them just wanting to touch them but knowing that mama has said no. So, she goes back to her plastic Nativity that is left out all year long and talks with Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus.

This year at family Christmas party she had the honor of being Mary - and she treated it just as that, an honor. She sat there with her hands together, didn't say a word except to peer into the manger and ask where the baby was. After all, that was the most important part.

She loves anything that has to do with Baby Jesus. Grandma Gayle took her to the dollar store to pick out a special surprise. Out of everything in that store she could have chosen she chose a little ceramic figure of a woman and baby, whom is OBVIOUSLY Mary and Baby Jesus. Then they spent some time searching throughout the whole store trying to find Joseph. Unfortunately, "he was at work" :)

Often times when I am sitting down feeding Brody she will come and put her pink blanket over my head and tell me that I am Mary, Brody is Baby Jesus and she is Joseph.

Last Christmas I wasn't allowed to put away her little Nativity set, a plastic one from Avon that my mom gave her. They have been drug all over the house. Since then she has been given another ceramic set that she was allowed to paint herself and actually did a wonderful job on. Then there's the finger puppet set that Grandma Carling figured she would get more of a thrill out of, which she has. She also has a felt set that she takes to church, that one she calls the "new Baby Jesus". Most recent is a paper cut out of the whole Nativity glued onto a file folder (thanks, Grandma). Occasionally, a couple of the Josephs will get together. I see two of them next to each other right now.

I have decided to make this little obsession into a tradition and get her a new Nativity set each year. It has been fun to have the Nativity up all year since last year at Christmas I wasn't allowed to put it away. It has it's "home" in one of the cubbies on the entertainment center. I sure hope this is one thing she never grows out of!