Home again, home again, jiggity jog.  After being gone for more than a week, I’m back in front of my computer, drinking coffee, and trying to decide which of the many stories from our Christmas vacation I should share with you first.  Hmmm…so many to choose from.  How about this one:

Over the past month, Travis and I have made a concerted effort to try and convey to Arle the real reason behind all the Christmas hoop-la.  We’ve told her over and over again that Christmas is for Jesus.  We sang “Happy Birthday” to Jesus.  We talked about the Nativity scene in our home.  Day before yesterday, she showed me that she realizes Jesus is definitely someone special. 

Over the course of the week at her grandparent’s home, she lost her appetite for most of the food she usually loves and developed quite an affection for candy canes.  She’s rarely allowed to eat sugar, but we didn’t mind since they only come around once a year.  Sunday evening, I was packing up all of our Christmas loot and visiting with my Mother when Arle came in saying, “Bite? Bite?” and holding up a candy cane.  Being the kind Mommy that I am, I took it from her and told her she couldn’t have it because it was almost bedtime and she had refused to eat hardly anything all day long. I expected her to challenge me, but she simply turned around and walked off.  I looked at my Mother with such pride and said something like, “Wow!  What an obedient daughter I have.”  Mother replied, “She knows where the rest are and she’s going to get another.”  She and I immediately followed Arle’s trail to see if she really was being sneaky, and sure enough, she already had another candy cane in hand.  When she looked up and realized she was busted, she simply lifted the candy to me and said, “Bite for Jesus?”  Mother and I both died laughing.  We couldn’t believe she would come up with that at 18 months old.  I’m quickly realizing that she’s going to be quite the handful!