Taking the Scenic Route

Christmas Eve

26th December 2007

Christmas Eve

We went to the candlelight service at Church.  Zora made it through the first quarter of it, but I had to get Zach to come retrieve her during the children’s story because she would not leave the pointsettias alone.  When she started going for the advent wreath, Zach came and got her so I only had Zane up there.  I pulled him up off the floor (he was laying down *sigh*) and onto my lap and the rest of the children’s time was pleasant for us and I had time to realize that, despite the fact that I was originally the only parent up there to “help” my kids, there were now several more and the kids were causing more havoc than mine.  That made me feel less idiotic.  (because for about 2 veeeery long minutes I had one that was laying on the floor and the other that was like a little tornado in curls up there, and I felt like the worst parent in the world.) 

The other problem was continuing through the service.  Zane was having a problem sitting still (there was no children’s church service and the service was “advertised” as being kid friendly and kids of all ages were encouraged to participate) and at one point, while trying to arrange himself in his chair, he used the seat in front of him as leverage for a short bit and as he was pulling his legs back towards himself the lady in the chair turned around and grabbed his feet to shove them away faster and hissed “thank you” about three times in a row.  I was so shocked that I didn’t even respond.  I was watching him and he literally just barely touched the back of the seat and wasn’t kicking or anything, just touched it.  She spent the rest of the service shooting us daggers and mumbling.  lovely. (Ironically, she was louder and more distracting than he was, and she was the grownup) He really was doing pretty well IMO, just wiggly with the occasional very quiet comment.  (he almost never talks at the ‘normal’ talking volume, he is very quiet, although the excited comment of “fire!” when he saw the candles did make me giggle a little)  As I looked around the sanctuary there were several other kids in the same age range that were actually standing up and far more active and talkative, and we were actively working with him to help him remember that he needed to sit and be quiet.  Thankfully, most of the service was singing and that was better for Zane.  I was in too good of a mood to really let it bother me at the time.  In retrospect I was really annoyed at the lady though.  Not exactly the picture of Christian charity there.  (plus, I felt like “if they only knew how much worse it could be” and just wanted to kick her for being so intolerant.  Church is hard enough without commentary from the peanut gallery)

After the service we went by Heartsprings to see the “Lights on the Lake“.  After we went through it, Zane asked to go again, so we did.  He loved it!  He was talking about all the different lights as we went past and really doing an amazing job of commenting about them.  After that, we went home and I tried to get a few pictures of them in their church clothes (got ‘outtakes’, but no ‘postcard’ pictures) and then we baked some gingersnaps.  I put the dough in balls and each of them helped roll them in sugar.  Well, more accurately, Zane rolled, Zora squashed.  Zane’s turned into cookies, and Zora, although enthusiastic and having fun, ended up creating ‘playdough’.  lol.  It was fun.  Over the course of the evening we made fudge, a black walnut pie (like pecan pie), two cheesecakes, and an apricot pie.  I need a different crust recipe though because they end up being “patchwork style” crusts.  We also prepped the potatoes, made the crabmeat lasagna & a breakfast casserole so we just had to put them in the oven to bake in the morning.

In the middle of the baking/cooking, we gave the kid’s baths, then we sat down to read the Christmas Story and “The night before Christmas” and hung their stockings.  It was sweet.  Zora had trouble hanging hers, so Zane helped her.  Then we got some of the freshly baked cookies on a plate and put out some milk for Santa and put them to bed.

Right before bed we finished wrapping the presents (we had wrapped most of them the night before, but still had the books and a few random gifts), and then set the scene for the morning.  It was nice.  We were exhausted, but very happy and excited for the morning.

The “outtakes”

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The stockings were hung by the chimney with care

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more later about a great Christmas day.

 

 

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 26th, 2007 at 5:38 PM and is filed under Autistic Life, Christmas, Church, Zane, Zora. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

There is currently one response to “Christmas Eve”

  1. 1 On December 26th, 2007, Jessemommy said:
       

    (belated) Merry Christmas!

    Omg about the lady at the service. geesh!

     
  • Zane's age

  • Zane is 22 years, 3 months, and 1 day old
  • Zora's age

  • Zora is 18 years, 3 months, and 5 days old
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  • Jesus didn’t send his disciples out as “Christian soldiers marching as to war.” He sent them out as peacemakers, who would form circles of friendship and thereby enable people to connect with one another. That is still the primary Christian mission: better living through better circles of sharing. — Tom Ehrich

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