Went to see Zoe’s Christmas program at her school this morning. It was adorable; all the 2 and 3 year old classes sang songs and then the 4 year olds did a quick nativity show. Zoe sang Jingle Bells and shook her bell necklace quite well! She’s having fun at home playing out the baby jesus story with her nativity toys and insists that one of the magi is a girl…her favorite dress-up character right now, too….whose to say there wasn’t. The Bible only mentions 3 gifts from magi, not even the number of visitors. Also went to see santa at the mall tonight. Zoe sat on his lap and talked about what she’d like for Christmas; this is the first year she’s realized that is the point of seeing santa. the elves then got a great picture of Zoe and Avi together! Zoe’s been curious why santa isn’t visiting baby Jesus at the manger with everyone else. Our explanation is that Santa came later in time and is a very kind man who celebrates baby Jesus’s birthday by giving gifts to children….just like we all give gifts to each other at Christmas. He starts the season at St. Nickolas day by putting gifts in shoes, and then will bring some more during Christmas (which is not one day, but a whole season of gift giving). She has enjoyed gift shopping, especially for Daddy, so it didnt make sense to her that Santa brings them all…and we’ll be ‘doing’ Christmas so many times at family’s houses and Christmas get togethers that I thought we’d preempt confusion by calling it a Christmas season instead of one day. It keeps her guessing, too, about which day will we get gifts? Makes it all pretty much more fun than waiting until one day. Christmas morning under the tree at our home will be the 18th! so excited!!