Let Your Light Shine

Bernie wants me to dedicate some of his remaining blog posts to how we can help with the Newtown tragedy and/or how to make the world a better place. One way, as demonstrated by Lewis, is to say a prayer, to light a candle, or do both while attending a prayer vigil. You can find a list of planned vigils here. I am praying that some how, some way, the affected families will eventually find peace. That seems impossible right about now, since those of us watching this from afar can't seem to find any.

We are doing our best to shelter Jack from all this (a luxury that the Sandy Hook Elementary School parents do not have). It is hard because it is everywhere.  It is all over the television and you can't go anywhere right now without hearing related discussion. When the time comes, starting Kindergarten is hard enough, we definitely do not want him to feel unsafe.

We turned the news off for awhile and decided to try to do some activitites that might help spark some Christmas spirit.  We headed to the Shoreline Trolley Museum, which was hosting trolley rides to see Santa.  Jack likes trains so I figured it would be fun for him, and I've been wanting to get some pictures of the kids with St. Nick. There are a lot of old and interesting trolleys at the museum.  I think Jack checked out most if not all of them. Vivi went to see Santa, no problem.

Jack, on the other hand, wanted nothing to do with Santa.  Here is Santa trying to get Jack to cooperate (Jack is hiding on the floor):



This was a nice, patient Santa, but that did not change Jack's mind.  When we finished with the museum, we headed to the Fantasy of Lights.  At first Jack was bummed that we couldn't get out of the car and see the lights.  He really enjoyed them once he got over that.  I have to say that I agree that that there should be walking paths at these things in addition to the auto path. I am sure Vivian didn't get to see much of anything since she was rear-facing in her car seat. 

When we got home, we watched the movie Elf. It was the first time Jack saw it and he thought it was hysterical.  I think his new saying might be "son of a nutcracker!"

It is hard to be festive with so much going on in our little state right now.  What happened in Newton reminds us that live is precious, fragile, and fleeting.  We have to give our kids amazing holidays while we have the opportunity to do so.