Max and Lucy acted as the waiter and waitress for the pancake breakfast that Matt made last Saturday, when Pop was here.  After Lucy had served Pop his food, he thanked her, and asked her to come sit on his lap and give him a hug.  She said very seriously, “Oh no Pop, that wouldn’t be respectable.  I’m your waiter.”

A couple of days ago I was in the Target returns line with the kids.  When I arrived, there was no one behind me, but during the course of my transaction, about 9 people showed up.  Of course, I had lots of returns, with about 5 receipts on the counter, and 4 different credit cards, trying to find each item either on the receipts or the cards, to get my money back.  With one lady in the Returns department, and me and my mess on the counter, the natives behind me were getting restless.  I was grateful to be done finally, and as I gathered my stuff and we left the area, Max said, “I wish I had a credit card!”  All 9 in line busted out in laughter – and I retorted – “No, you don’t!”

Every year at Lucy’s preschool, on the day before Christmas break, the have a little candlelit service (of sorts).  It’s not a spiritual thing, just a sweet thing.  They practice the songs they will sing together several days before.  One of the songs includes a very generic ‘This Little Light of Mine.’  The 2nd verse is supposed to be ‘don’t let anyone blow it out.’  As the group began to sing, Lucy was belting out to the teacher, “NO, IT’S SATAN!  IT’S SATAN!!”  The teacher calmly told her that they were going to sing it another way, as the kids are looking at Lucy quite aghast.  It was priceless.

This is our 2008 picture with Santa, and he’s a pretty awesome guy.  Being that he is Ben Patterson, the chaplain of Westmont, makes him a lot less creepy than other Santas.  Also, Santa Ben has a bit of history with us.  In January of 2003, I miscarried a pregnancy, and then had many months of bladder infections to follow.  Our road to getting preggers with another baby seemed quite long and trying.  Matt and I went up to ask for prayer at our church from a couple on the prayer team.  We saw Ben and his wife standing up, told them our story and they prayed over us.  What we didn’t realize was, that Ben and his wife were not on the prayer team at all that day – they had been waiting in line for someone to pray for them!  We got a big chuckle out of that, and I was so grateful for their willingness to bless us at that moment.

So when we went to Westmont last week, and the kids sat with Santa Ben, I whispered this memory to him.  I said, ‘Look, here she is! (Lucy at age 4).  ‘How wonderful’, he said, with such joy in his eyes. 

Thank you, Santa Ben.  🙂

“So – no more wrestling with your brother on the couch!  It’s so easy to fall off and smack your face on the coffee table, sweetie.  And let’s hope that your front wiggly tooth won’t turn black and stay that way for 2 years, until it’s really ready to fall out.”