Sunday, October 23, 2011

Jessica in Costume; Elyse Dancing

On Saturday, Jessica went to a birthday party for one of her classmates. It was a costume party, and she wore her Snow Princess outfit:





(I don't know if it's really a Snow Princess outfit, but with the hood up, that's what it makes me think of.)

Elyse wasn't dressed up for anything, but she wanted to dance in front of the camera:




And she wanted a picture with Snow White Bear:



You can see all the pictures at these two spots on my photography Web site:
http://www.chrisburdett.com/princess/slideshow
http://www.chrisburdett.com/elyse21/slideshow

Friday, October 21, 2011

The Gospel According to Jessica

This afternoon, Jessica decided to read to Elyse and me from the Bible (which was actually an old issue of Animal Baby). Elyse and I sat on the sofa, and Jessica sat before us on our Fisher Price stool. She told us, "I'm going to tell you the story of Jesus." She opened up her book and began:

"Once there was a manger..."

Jessica's is the only manger-centric gospel I know of.

But maybe there's a lesson that can be learned here: even a manger--which is, after all, only a feeding trough for cows and pigs and donkeys--can be a vessel for the Divine. We would all do well to strive to rise above our usual stations and be put to such noble use.

(To put this story in a little more context: On Fridays, Jessica's class goes to chapel, and I believe this morning Father Doug told them some of the Christmas story. Also, we had been listening to Ella Fitzgerald singing "Away in a Manger," so mangers were on her mind.)

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Fridays with Elyse

On Friday afternoons Jessica has ballet, so when I pick Elyse up from her preschool class, we have another forty minutes or so before Jessica's ready to go. So far, the weather has been good on those Fridays, so we use the time to walk around the church and play on the playground.

Last Friday I had my camera with me, so I took a few pictures as we went along. Here are four of my favorites:




Monday, October 3, 2011

Rock City

Last Saturday we drove up to Lookout Mountain, GA, for a weekend vacation. We stayed at the Sky Harbor Bavarian Inn, the same place Jessica and I stayed back in February when we came up for our weekend adventure, and went to Rock City both Saturday and Sunday.

Here are a few pictures from our trip: