Princess Lollipop does Church

Princess Lollipop (my 3 year old sister) is very excited for Christmas.  She absolutely "gets it" this year, and is "bouncing off the wall" excited.  The thought of Father Christmas withholding presents based on behaviour has terrified her into submission for a month.  Mostly.  On occasion we've had to remind her to use her "good listening skills", and then she'd cry hysterically, convinced she wasn't going to get any presents.

We also have an "Elf on the Shelf" this year, which initially freaked her out BIG TIME.  We eventually calmed her down, convincing her Figgle (the Elf) was actually a fairy, who was friends with Peter Pan and Tinkerbell.  She was also confined to the downstairs.  Since then Figgle has been a welcome addition to our family.  Lolli has loved seeing what new "viewing place" Figgle has found for herself.  Figgle hasn't played any tricks this year - we figured that would be a step too far.

Today is, of course, Christmas Eve.  Lolli's excitement has hit an all time high, closely followed by Little Prince, my 9 year old brother.  Ooooh boy!

Now, we're not an especially religious family.  We do attend the Christmas Eve Crib Service every year, however.  This year we took an over-excited Princess Lollipop with us.  I had the pleasure of sitting with her.  Ooooh BOY!

We were given a hymn sheet to share.  She took on the task of holding it.  Mostly clutched to her chest so I couldn't see it.  She would occasionally hold it out, waving it in my direction...

Princess Lollipop was quite perplexed by many of the things happening, and asked a lot of questions.  In a stage whisper.  Some examples of our "quiet" conversations -
- "LOOK!  It's Father Christmas!" (That's not Father Christmas, that's Jesus...)
- "Who are Mary and Joseph?" (They were in your school Christmas play, remember?) "Oh yes! They're Jack and Molly."
- "I WANT TO HAVE FIRE!" (Waiting to carry our candles to the nativity scene)
- "Are you going to see the beautiful things I did?" (She carried figurines to the nativity)
- "That's Baby Jesus up there, which one's Baby Jesus?" (The big one, in the middle) "No, it's not!" (He grew up into a man) "No, he can't." (People grow up!) "But I'm bigger than babies" (No, no, Jesus was born 2000 years ago) *laughs hysterically for 5 minutes*

I was regaling my Dad with tales of Lolli at church, so he called her over to ask about it.  This is her version -
- "I saw Jesus on the flat sword" (the cross) "It was Man Jesus, not Baby Jesus"

Have a very merry Christmas everyone!