one of Santa's elves

On Thursdays, we usually go to playgroup at the church building. We've had playgroup for years-held in different places, held on different days, attended by different people, etc. For the last little while, it's been held at the church building and there are usually 3 or 4 moms there with probably about 6-9 children-sometimes less, sometimes many more. Whenever we get there, if her friends aren't there yet, Katie Boo likes to go see "Miss Debbie," our church secretary. She loves Miss Debbie because she is so sweet to her and plays "horsie" and holds her in her lap and just makes her feel special.


One day, Miss Debbie had this great Christmas hat. When you push the button, it plays a song called, "We are Santa's Elves" and it dances. Katie thought this hat was the best thing in the world. It was so funny watching the amusement on her face and seeing her enjoy this thing. Pure joy! Our minister, Mr. Mark, and one of our elders, Mr. Ben, were there and I think they enjoyed watching her too.


One day, I told Katie to tell someone about Miss Debbie's hat. She started telling them, but she said something like, "Miss Debbie got me a hat........" I interrupted her and said, "No, Katie. It's not your hat. It's Miss Debbie's hat." The look on her face was one of such sadness & confusion. It almost brought me to tears. She was completely devastated. We quickly got her to go on with the story because we were afraid she was going to cry. A week or so later, I saw Miss Debbie and told her about what had happened. She told Katie that it could be her hat. I assumed she just meant that we could just tell Katie that it was her hat-not actually give it to her.


Well, last Thursday, we had our kids' Christmas party for church. We all met at a senior citizen home and sang carols & passed out candy canes and then went to McDonald's to eat lunch. As we were getting into the car to go to McDonald's, Miss Debbie, who had come along for the caroling, came to the car, handed Katie the hat and said, "Merry Christmas!" You should have seen Katie's face light up!

I just love it when people are sweet to my children!