Sometimes things just don’t go the way I plan

I planned a really nice Christmas Eve program. Bri has been practicing Christmas songs for several weeks so I decided that I’d read T’was the Night before Christmas, then we’d sing carols. The kids would open one present. Then J. would read a short story as a transition and we would have a spiritual message about the real meaning of Christmas with hymns interspersed with readings from the New Testament. It didn’t go well.

I had to take a detour with Will in the bathroom in the middle of the night before Christmas and he didn’t really cooperate during the caroling. (He appropriated the musical score.) Then Bri and Lizzy did a nice Jingle Bells routine. The rapping encore was quite funny. The kids unwrapped a present. Then J. started reading the short story. Will started playing the keyboard. At first we just told him to turn it down but Will prefers a loud volume so eventually I unplugged it. After trying in vain to find the right plug to plug it back in and after being told “no” multiple times to playing on the computer or DVD player Will lost it. He started running around saying, “Name Jesus Christ, Amen,” in a vain attempt to end his torture. When that didn’t work he moved on to pinching and saying “Quiet voice.”

During the “spiritual” portion there was a significant amount of poking each other, putting feet on each other and laying hands on each other while complaining over how much they had to read. I believe that the message of the true meaning of Christmas was lost in chaos.