How a 2 year-old views the nativity

Every year we put out a nativity set. It's the Little People Nativity, and it's a little creepy.

But they're plastic, and when Rachel is sucking the head of the baby Jesus I feel much better that it's not some undetermined metal with the paint peeling off.

This year, however, a couple things happened to change our tradition:
1) Our friend Laurie gave us a "grown up" nativity set.
2) I received a "What God Wants For Christmas" nativity set from my MOPS group.
3) Rachel made a baby Jesus at her preschool, which looks suspiciously like a wooden chess piece wrapped in tissue lying in fresh straw.We now have 3 nativity sets, plus pawn-piece Jesus, all competing for space. Rachel always seems to find the sets excellent toys and with good reason... I mean, what else is a 2 year old supposed to do with them? She usually takes the angel and baby Jesus and hides them somewhere in the house. At first, I considered this a huge leap in her cognitive abilities as it isn't Christmas yet; therefore, Jesus and the angel shouldn't really BE at the manger until the 25th. That is, until I saw some of the other things Rachel did with the nativity....

Baby Jesus Goes for a Ride with the Donkey

... Mary and Joesph don't seem all that concerned, so I guess he's ok.

Mary Gets Kicked out of the Stable

Joseph kicks Mary to the roof. I'm not sure what's going on with him and the angel, but it doesn't look good...

Not Sure What They're All Looking At....

but it's enthralling, whatever it is. It can't be the angel because she's passed out behind the food basket on the right side of the stable.

No, Mary. You can't have the baby. We need to have a long talk about the whole 'God made me pregnant' thing...

This is the new, adult nativity from Laurie. It only has a few pieces. I think baby Jesus may need a readjustment in his manger. Either that, or Rachel's been sucking on his head.

What REALLY happens when an angel appears




Yes, that's Mary on top of Joseph. I'm just as confused as you are.

Anyway, Merry Christmas everyone. Hope you have a great holiday! :-)

On a related note, your kids can also come over and learn which beers are on sale at your local Giant

I love pop music. I love singing popular songs around the house, which also means I'm singing these songs in front of my children. This can cause me to feel a little uncomfortable because in a lot of cases some lyrics are... not exactly words I want my kids repeating in preschool.*

And unfortunately for them (and me) the song "Red Solo Cup" has been going through my head for about 24 hours now (thank you, Glee). I can't stop singing the stupid chorus, so I decided to change the lyrics to fit the norms of my family. I do this for a lot of songs, actually. It's sad.

So the new version went something like this:
Red Solo cup
I fill you up
with lots of milkies...**

I'm singing as I give Rachel her snack. She slams down her cup and says, "No, Mommy! It's 'let's have a party!'"

Reason #15 why my kids don't get play-dates.

*No profanity, mind you. But would you want your 2 year old singing Lady Gaga instead of the Itsy Bitsy Spider?
**Rachel's pet name for milk... She may be using this word until high school.

Dear Alec Baldwin...

... I just want you to know that I blame you for my new addiction to Words With Friends. I just had to know how a cell phone game could get anyone kicked off of an airline flight. Now I know. And I can't stop.

Damn you.

Love,
Jen