The Christmas Pageant

Do you know what is missing from this picture?

Apparently this:

And this:

After Ray's procedure yesterday (everything went well and he is recovering nicely), we went to my nephew's birthday party. Dylan is 5. I am not sure how he managed to get to be 5 already, but that is a whole other post. The party was at 6 and we got there quite late, but the kids got to play anyway, and we all had a good time.

Before leaving, we put the kids in their pajamas and then bundled them into the car. The theory is that on the hour ride home, they will sleep. It works for Liam, but Xander is not so easy these days. When it became obvious that he was not going to sleep, I started talking to him about the Christmas pageant.

First off, you should know that church has not been easy for us with Xander. The noise and crowd seem to do him in. We stopped going at all for a couple years, first because I was so sick while pregnant with Liam, then because it was also pointless for us to go only to wander around the building after him, as he flatly refused to take part in the church service or go to the infant room (they actually came and got us). We went last year for Christmas Eve for the kiddie service and Xander cried and held his hands over his ears!

The weird thing is that he has no problems with being in a pool with 10 other classes of swimming lessons going around. School doesn't bother him. Shopping is fun. But church is like kryponite. It makes him crazy. So we stopped going.

We went again last week to try again and this time he is old enough to be in the Sunday School class. I went with him. He didn't cry or scream, but nor did he participate. And I had to be there with him. So at the end of it they talked about how over the next few weeks the Sunday School kids will be preparing for the Christmas Pageant.

So in the car I was trying to talk it up. And I got him with this:
"You get to dress up."

Ah, now he's interested!
"Great, Mommy," he says, "I'll dress up in my Batman costume."

Doh! Not so successful. So I get Ray to tell him the basics of the Christmas story. He's heard it before, but we try again.

"So you see Xander, there's no Batman in the Christmas story."

There is not even a pause when he answers: "Okay, I'll wear my pirate costume instead!"

I laughed and laughed. My Mom laughed. Ray laughed. The big miracle is that Liam didn't wake up.

I kept trying to convince him that there was no Batman AND no pirate (mean Mommy!) and suggested he might be a sheep. He was unimpressed with the sheep idea and gave a, "No thanks, Mommy!"

Ha!

Pirates of the Caribbean and Batman meet the baby Jesus! It'll be a classic.