This Christmas was a quiet one, and included a lot of sleeping on my part.  Christmas Eve I slept most of the day away, then washed up for a quick dinner and candlelight service at church.  I prepped C&D briefly, explaining that we were going to celebrate Jesus’ birthday, and for this birthday we won’t have hats or cake or cupcakes, but we would have singing and organ and candles.  When we squeezed into the end of a pew, Carmen looked up and saw wreaths of evergreen, white candles lit around.  “Fire for cupcakes!” she laughed.  We didn’t stay long enough for the small tapers to be passed around as is customary for Christmas, but I’m certain C&D would have wanted to blow them out.

While C&D sat in church, they looked at books and pretended to read the music.  While she busied herself Carmen listened to the readings and sermon, occasionally offering her play-by-play.  “He’s talking about David.”  “He’s talking about playing!”  We were impressed at her multitasking abilities.

Christmas Day we stayed at home, resting and preparing for the next day, a work day for Matt.  The neighborhood is quiet.  No parties or great phalanxes of relatives visiting neighbors, no children trying new bicycles in the street.  Even the trash bins look ordinary; at our old house the bins would be overflowing with tissue paper and boxes.

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We didn’t do the Santa thing with C&D.  So whenever C&D see the images of the bearded man in the red suit, they call him by the name they know for another man with a big white beard:  Noah.