Christmas activity of the day #2 and #3

We had our ward Christmas party this evening. It was our first time attending a Christmas party ever in this ward. 

We didn't have one in 2019 because our ward was so new that we just "couldn't even" (as the kids say, though I would say that we "prolly" should have). There was no party in 2020 due to COVID (good call, honestly). And then I found this in an email from 2021 that states: "We held our first annual [redacted] Ward Christmas party with an exciting 'Service Swap' on Saturday followed by a Relief Society social on Sunday."

Our family was refraining from superfluous social gatherings throughout 2021 and 2022, which I'll admit did put a damper in our social life. But to our credit, I was (1) in a high risk pregnancy in 2021 and (2) had an infant in 2022 and (3) COVID was still, like, raging and (4) my kids enjoy, like, getting pneumonia and stuff anyway so I oddly feel like being sick for 90% of the year isn't very fun so with COVID in the mix it (crowds of people) just didn't seem like a thing I really wanted to deal with.

Phoebe has never gone to nursery. And we joke that it's because she's stubborn (oh, she's stubborn...we're not joking about that part!) but I'm honestly not broken up about it at all because the idea of sending her to nursery where germs are swapped like Pokemon cards is, like, not at all appealing to me. 

Anyway, totally our bad for not attending the ward Christmas party in 2021...or 2022...or...2023...well, we sent our teenagers to help babysit in 2023 (because that is what the teenagers evidently do at the ward Christmas party)...and we finally dragged our sorry behinds to the party this year. We're low-key social pariahs in the ward. We wear mask (to cover our piranha-esque teeth, of course) and lurk on the outskirts of the action. Afraid we might bite (or something), people are pretty good about steering clear.

We had a light dinner (somehow we missed the memo on the dessert potluck, but there was plenty without our contribution). Our teenagers' sweet friends went to eat outside with our teenagers. In mid-December. It was plenty warm today, but still. It was such a caring gesture—our girls have some pretty great friends in this ward. Andrew and I actually ate inside with Phoebe, but we may as well have eaten elsewhere since we were at our own table anyway. 

After dinner the kids went to the primary room to do some colouring sheets (and run rampant in the hallways) while the grown ups played "Service Swap," a white elephant gift exchange of service. It's been a tradition at the ward party since 2021. So I guess you could say it's kind of a big deal. Or you could say it's run its course. It's not that it it's not a good idea. It's a fine idea. It's a fun idea. AND...there are other ideas out there.

Miriam would like to do a Christmas in Nauvoo party next year—which isn't an entirely absurd idea because (1) we're studying the D&C and church history next year and (2) other people have done it and done it well—but I fully expect for her idea to be whittled down to the barest of bare bones or cast aside altogether. 

We have learned through sad experience that idea rankle committees, who would like to abide by tradition. 

Ideas, as we all know, "are dangerous, but the man to whom they are least dangerous is the man of ideas. He is acquainted with ideas, and moves among them like a lion-tamer. Ideas are dangerous, but the man to whom they are most dangerous is the man of no ideas" (Chesterton, 1905).

When it comes to ideas, I wish to raise lion-tamers (not teetotalers, as Chesterton might say). 

These teetotalers are ones that are tee-totally against the having of ideas. And speaking of which, are you even aware of the etymology of teetotaler? It is one who is capital-T totally (or Totally) against something. 

Literally, that is the etymology—emphasizing the word totally with a capital letter.

There were people who were "totally" against alcohol and then there were people who were Totally against alcohol. It's completely accurate to, for example, "The Music Man" when there's trouble—right here in River City! With a capital T and that rhymes with P and that stands for pool! Or whatever...

Teetotaler might just be my favourite word of the day.

But anyway, I really think that we should be for cultivating ideas—courageously bringing these long-toothed, be-clawed, and unruly beasts out on stage and turning them into a show worth watching. 

I'm rather against animal cruelty on the whole (to put it lightly), but sometimes these beasts (that is: ideas) need to be whipped into shape. They need to be bopped on the nose with a chair. They need to be taught how to behave so that they can really shine. 

They should not be left alone to languish in a lonely cage somewhere. 

Ideas need discussion. 

They need trial runs. 

They need pruning and grafting. 

They may need to play in the sandbox for a while. 

They do not need to be staked out in the back yard and left in the hot sun (or pouring rain) all day. 

I'm mixing all my metaphors, but somehow years of pent up frustration makes these metaphors all seem valid all at once. 

Be a lion 

tamer,

be acquainted with ideas.
Be bold and walk 

among them
unafraid 

of tripping
on their tails.  

I appreciate everyone's effort. Especially at the present (grad school) moment, when I don't feel like have many eff(ort)s to give in the Christmas party department, but, by golly, dazzle me! Unleash your lions! 

I surely can't be the only one with lions in my mind.

So, anyway, that, uh, was our second activity. I didn't take any pictures. 

*****

Our third Christmas activity was a stop at the live nativity at Simpsonwood where someone unleashed their figurative lions—and their literal camels. Highly recommend.

This was also our first year attending. We parked at the church across the street from the park (they sponsor the nativity) and walked through a lovely milk jug luminaria to get to Bethlehem. How long did it take them to collect that many milk jugs? Ages probably. Definitely a group effort.

While we were walking along we noticed a milk jug go entirely up in flames—whoops.

We weren't quite sure what to do because the surrounding leaf matter was quickly catching on fire. So we cleared the area surrounding the flames...but that wasn't quite doing "it." So Andrew and the kids began stomping on it. And an usher came over to help stomp on it. And then Andrew had the brilliant idea of just kicking the whole thing off the kindling (dry grass and leaves) it was sitting on and onto the road. 

That was a good move. 

So we basically stopped a forest fire today and are more or less heroes.

Here we are waiting to enter Bethlehem. The detail was fantastic. I was not expecting the census taker to stop us and ask how many were in our party. And then our way into the city was barred by soldiers who verified that we'd been recorded in the census. When I tell you these people were having fun...they were having fun (and so, you see, we were having fun, too).

Phoebe is very curious about camels, or, as she says, "Tuh-tuh-pamels." Here she is getting to meet the camel:

And here I am with baby Rachel on a camel:

We have this picture, or a similar one, on our fridge and the story behind it is that Rachel...peed...on the camel. You can perhaps see that she is signing "toilet" with her little fist raised in the air. And I'm saying, "Hold it, Rachel!" 

But Rachel could not hold it.

She had rubber pants over her underwear that prevented her from actually peeing on the camel, but family lore is that "Rachel peed on a camel" and that is all Phoebe could talk about while we were standing in line waiting to walk past the camels.

Here's Zoë with a camel:

And Alexander with a camel:

Benjamin surprised me by not going to meet the camel (when he totally could have; perhaps he will next year).

We sang a song at the money changers to earn some shekels (chocolate coins), there were men throwing fistfuls of frankincense and/or myrrh into candles to make big flames at "Goldie, Myrrhy & Frank's Incense Shop." Puns were everywhere.

We got sent to jail...

The kids went to Hebrew school:

We saw sheep and donkeys and goats and a baby camel down at the other end of Bethlehem. And away from the hustle and bustle (and occasional silliness) of the city was a live manger scene (and a reading of the Christmas story). 

It was a fun experience that made me believe in ideas again—ideas can bring communities together in new and interesting ways. Ideas can instruct us and inspire us and entertain us, engage us, elevate us. 

Here we are walking back to our van without any heroic flame stomping:

Long ago, my mom told me something about how she always tried to say yes when there wasn't a reason for a no. As a parent, probably, I think was the context. 

She tried to reserve "no" for when it was truly necessary. And then she didn't even really have to give us a reason for the no because we kids knew that she wouldn't say no unless there was a reason, unless she meant it.

Perhaps it's indulgent, but that conversation has always stuck with me and it's something I've tried to do with my own children—to say yes, to have yes be the default. 

It can be hard, sometimes, to have yes be the default. 

But sometimes I think having "no" be the default may be harder. 

So, yes, my child,

to all of your ideas. 

Why not? 

I am afraid 

of no lion.

By the way, sometimes these complicated things are so simple. Teetotalers, a word often mispronounced, is so simple once you know it's T-total. And this whole live nativity? Organized on Signup Genius.