A Christmas Miracle

Cambel successfully completed his Christmas program at church last Sunday and we beamed with pride (while breathing a collective sigh of relief that he didn't start a comedy routine during the bell performance). At one point in the program I thought we were headed for disaster when the bell choir was ready to play and no one had given Cambel his bells. He looked momentarily panicked, but kept it together even when he was handed the wrong bell. My little problem solver just checked and double checked his new color and channeled some intense focus and concentration to play at the right time. We were pretty impressed at his reaction since sometimes spilling a drop of milk sends him right over the edge. When it was over I asked him if he usually had a different color bell and he shrugged and said nonchalantly "yeah, but sometimes I get green." Now where is this flexibility when I don't tie his shoes the right way?

Anyway, as usual a herd of children corralled onto a stage in their Sunday best, singing and playing bells and losing focus and forgetting their lines and yawning is pretty cute, and so I would count this program a success.

Unfortunately I don't have any great pictures of the program. I do have a too-long video of a Cambel stifling a yawn while he is singing, but it would just take too much effort and patience to load it, and quite honestly I am just fresh out of both.

I did manage to get a few shots of the Cambel and Ada looking all Christmas-y (I wish that was actually a word....should I write "all Christmas like?"). And miracle of miracles they are both smiling and looking the same direction. The spirit of Christmas must have just overwhelmed them (or maybe it was just the carmel corn their Dad was feeding them to keep them happy).

You know Christmas is officially here when you have the picture of the kids dressed in red in front of the tree.

And this shot would be perfect if it weren't for that darn carmel corn in Ada's mouth...but she was hungry and not in the best mood and the candy was the only thing standing between us and a total meltdown.

How on earth did Cambel get so big and grown up-looking?