The Christmas Play...

Today, Chris, Amelia and I played the "Holy Family" in our church Christmas play. It is a LONG time tradition that the youngest baby born that year is asked to play Jesus. Amelia isn't the youngest, but she was the only baby of the 3 that was available!

Amelia did great in all of the rehearsals. She definitely forgot what it is like to be a teeny-tiny newborn, so she was entertaining all with her "singing", sitting up independently, and babbling over people when they'd try to say their lines. But no one seemed to care.

Today, we attempted to give her a nap between the last practice and the service, but as usual, all of her admirers were giving her too much attention.

And, of course, she decided it was nap time just about five minutes before we were due to start our processional up to the stage. She was screaming her little head off, with no bouncy movements or pacifiers doing the trick. I thought quickly and retrieved the bunny that she uses to sleep with (thank goodness we had it!!). Immediately, she let go and went to sleep. So then "Mary" had her sleeping babe, just as was written in the scripture, and I had 16 pounds of dead weight on my left arm for about 30 minutes. But hey, it did the trick.

She woke up towards the end, and still got to entertain the crowd with her perky, smiling self.

Here is the "Holy Family", just before the performance (I didn't have my head thingey on yet, oops). You can see she is beginning to not be happy anymore....