Family Christmas Program

I have a little analogy that goes along with this post...so get ready :)

Every year, our family, along with my parents and whoever else of the extended family is able to come, enjoy going to a rest home and either caroling through the halls or putting on a program for the residents.  It's a highlight of the season.

The kids sang "Rudolph"

This year there was a little bit of confusion as to where to park and what entrance to use.  We parked where we thought we should be and unloaded all the music and instrument paraphernalia.  We walked several yards down one side of the building before deciding that was the wrong way.  So we turned around and walked the other direction and finally found the right entrance.  My parents and brother were there and already setting up.  The guys all went off to find a room to practice their song and I started to get all of our stuff out.

Mom looked at me and said, "Where's Ben?"

Oh wow!  In all of our unloading and confusion Andy and I had totally forgotten to get Ben out of his carseat!

Mom and Josh did an fun arrangement of "Jingle Bells"

I ran out of the room and through the two sets of doors and down to the parking lot.  I almost dreaded looking in because I didn't want to see how sad Ben would be.  It had been no more than 7-8 minutes  that he had been alone, but I'm sure it seemed much longer to him :(

Matt played "Angels We Have Heard on High" on the piano

 I opened the door and saw some very sad, tear pooled eyes looking back at me.  He pointed to himself and  weakly said, "Me?"  My heart absolutely broke!  I got him out as fast as I could and just hugged him hard.  We joined the others and he was fine...especially once he saw "Bapa" :)

The three men sang a song but I don't remember what it was...neither does Andy :)

The kids also sang a song from the Primary Children's songbook about Joseph

Later that night I was thinking about my experience.

I couldn't believe I had completely forgotten about my son.

How often do I forget about another Son during this very special season?

The group sang "Silent Night" while Andy accompanied us on the guitar.

There is so much I get wrapped up with at this time of year.  Often, The Reason for our celebration gets forgotten and left behind.

Now, it's not a perfect analogy, as the program we were putting on was not all about Ben, but even so, it caused some introspection and pondering on my part.  Every year I tell myself I'm going to do a better job of remembering and teaching my children to remember.  Hopefully, over the years our traditions and activities will become more and more Christ centered and remembering The Son will be an easy and natural  consequence of the season.

We had the opposite problem that we had at the last Christmas program this time.  Ben allowed Grandma to get him in a costume but refused to come up and be with the rest of us during the song.  He wouldn't even let Bapa hold him while we sang.  He was having way too much fun running around the large and spacious room.

Doesn't he make a sweet angel?