December 26th: "A Very Louis Christmas"
A Very Louis Christmas
Yesterday morning, Louis got up REALLY early. Can you imagine why? Louis was SO excited for Christmas morning to FINALLY be here. He’d been waiting and waiting, and he couldn’t wait any more. So he jumped out of bed, and he ran downstairs to the living room, and there were presents EVERYWHERE! The stockings were full to overflowing. There were gifts wrapped under the tree. There were more gifts under the stockings. There was even a great, big, giant gift in a great, big, giant sack with a bow on it.
Louis jumped up and down, and then he ran back upstairs to his parents’ bedroom and threw open the door and went and jumped on their bed. But only his dad was in the bed. He groaned a bit and rolled over and said sleepily, “Merry Christmas, Louis.”
“Merry Christmas, Dad!” said Louis. He jumped off the bed and was about to run back downstairs. And then he stopped and asked, “Hey, where’s Mom?”
His dad yawned and said, “she’s down in the laundry room with Pepper. Her puppies are on the way. We’ve both been up with her all night taking turns watching her.”
“Puppies!” shouted Louis. “Oh wow! This is going to be the best Christmas EVER!” And he started to race down to the laundry room.
“Hold up there, Louis,” said his dad, slowly starting to get out of bed. “Let me go see how Pepper and your mom are doing. It might not be good for her to have all your Christmas morning excitement just now.” So Louis waited as patiently as he could while Mr. Gettinbigger went to check on Pepper.
He and Mrs. Gettinbigger both came back up to the living room, where Louis was now waiting with wide-eyed expectation. They both looked very tired, but they smiled at Louis.
“Pepper’s doing great. It’s going to be a little while still, I think,” said Mrs. Gettinbigger. “So how about we open some of these presents in the meantime?”
Louis was really excited about the puppies, but since they weren’t here yet, he decided presents would be a good distraction. He unloaded his stocking filled with candy and little trinkets and toys. He opened up a blanket from his grandma that she’d made herself. And a game that looked like a lot of fun from his cousins. And a new Lego set from his mom and dad. He was almost starting to forget about the puppies and was just starting to open the big, huge, giant gift when they all heard Pepper making some strange noises. Mr. and Mrs. Gettinbigger rushed to the laundry room. For a moment, Louis was torn between opening the big, huge, giant gift and going to see the puppies. Puppies were really exciting, of course, but now he really wanted to know what the big, huge, giant gift was, too. Pepper made another noise, and then he heard a tiny peeping sound. Louis walked away from the big, huge, giant gift and then ran to the laundry room.
Pepper’s puppies all arrived safe and sound – 5 of them. Two of them were black and white, like Pepper, and two were all black, and one was mostly white, except for some black socks on her feet. Once they were all cleaned up and snuggling with their mom, Louis was allowed to pet them gently and watch them try to learn to feed. He was having so much fun, he forgot all about all his presents – even the big, huge, giant one.
Finally, Mr. Gettinbigger went to the kitchen to start breakfast, and Mrs. Gettinbigger said, “Louis, do you want to go finish opening your presents?”
“I do, Mom,” said Louis. “But I don’t want to leave the puppies. They’re so cute. And I just can’t believe they’re finally here. We’ve been waiting for them for so long. And yesterday, they weren’t here, and now, here they are. It’s like a miracle! I just don’t think any gift could be better than this! 5 new puppies that didn’t exist, and now they do!”
“I’ll tell you what, why don’t we wait until Uncle Toby gets here for dinner to open your last gift? I think they two of you will have fun with it, and you can keep hanging out with the puppies for a while longer.”
“Thanks, Mom,” said Louis. “That’s a good idea. You know what, Mom? I wonder if this is how Mary and Joseph felt when Jesus was born. Like Jesus was the best gift ever. And like he was a miracle. I think it’s perfect that the puppies were born on Jesus’ birthday.”
“I do, too,” said Mrs. Gettinbigger.
#139 “That Boy-Child of Mary” verses 4 and 6
Louis finally left Pepper and her puppies alone so they could all get some rest, and he helped his dad make breakfast. One of their Christmas traditions is that Mrs. Gettinbigger makes yummy cinnamon rolls that are arranged in the shape of a sheep, and Mr. Gettinbigger makes fried eggs and bacon. This year, Mr. Gettinbigger let Louis crack the eggs into the pan, showing him how to do it so the yolks wouldn’t break and eggshells wouldn’t get dropped in the pan.
As Louis concentrated on the eggshells, with the cinnamon-roll sheep next to him on the counter, a thought suddenly came to him.
“I get it now!” Louis exclaimed, almost dropping an egg on the floor.
“Careful, Louis!” said his dad. Once the egg was safe, Mr. Gettinbigger asked, “what is it that you get now, Louis?”
“Eggshells!” said Louis. “And the song about the shepherds and the angels! I get why we have eggs and the cinnamon-roll sheep on Christmas!”
“Go on…” said Mr. Gettinbigger, smiling.
“Well, the sheep, of course, is for the shepherds who heard the good news about Jesus. But I never knew what that part in the song meant about eggshells. But now I do! Eggshell sees day-o! When you crack open the eggshell, the egg in the pan looks like a little sun. When you crack the eggshell, you see day-o! Like, Christmas day-o! I never got that before!”
Mr. Gettinbigger chuckled. “That all makes sense, Louis,” he said. He thought about teaching Louis about Latin, but thought better of it, and they finished making breakfast while they sang “Angels We Have Heard on High.”
#113 “Angels We Have Heard on High” v. 1 &2
After breakfast, Mr. Gettinbigger said, “we’d better call Grandma to tell her Merry Christmas and thank her for the gifts.”
Louis loved talking to his Grandma. She always asked about everything Louis was interested in. And she had good stories about things that happened a long time ago. And she always just made Louis feel really loved. So he was happy to call Grandma.
They talked for a while, and Louis told her all about the puppies and thanked her for the blanket. “It’s my favorite color – blue!” said Louis.
“Yes, I know,” said Grandma. “And did you see that I stitched little hearts all over it?”
“I did see that!” said Louis. “How did you make so many little tiny hearts?”
“There’s a setting on my machine that does it,” she explained. “It’s pretty neat, and easier than it looks.”
“Well, it’s still really nice,” said Louis. “Grandma, I wish you lived closer.”
“Me, too,” said Grandma. “But you know what, Louis? I think about you with love all the time. And I pray for you. And I can’t wait to come and visit you again, and for you to come and visit me. Even though we live far apart, our love for each other keeps us close together.”
“I know,” said Louis. “But I still wish I could talk to you more.”
“I’ll tell you what, Louis,” said Grandma, “how about every time we think about each other with love, we sing a song?”
“What song should we sing?” asked Louis.
“Well,” said Grandma. “There’s a fun song that talks about how God came down to earth so that we could have love. It reminds us that even though heaven seems like a really far away place, God’s love is never far away.”
“That’s just like us!” said Louis. “Even though we live far away, our love is never far away, right?”
“That’s right,” said Grandma.
#137 “He Came Down” v. 1 and 4
Later in the afternoon, Louis’s Uncle Toby came over for Christmas dinner. Louis was excited to show Uncle Toby the new puppies. Uncle Toby thought they were very cute, and they all looked healthy, too. Then they decided it was finally time for Louis to open the big, huge, giant gift. Louis pulled off the bow and took off the sack, and there was a shiny, new, big kid bicycle! It was blue, and had a bell on it, and gears you could change.
“It’s AWESOME!” shouted Louis.
“I just happened to bring my bike along today,” said Uncle Toby, “so how about we all go for a bike ride before dinner?”
They all thought that was a great idea, and they rode all over the neighborhood. Louis rang his bell whenever he passed someone on the street, or went through an intersection, or saw a dog, or a bird, or a squirrel.
“You know, Louis,” shouted Uncle Toby, “there are songs about the hills ringing with the good news that Jesus was born. Sounds like you are joining right in with your new bicycle bell!”
“Yeah!” said Louis, ringing his bell even more. “Merry Christmas, world!” Ring, ring, ring!
#146 “Gentle Mary Laid Her Child” v. 2
After their bike ride, and a big, yummy Christmas dinner, everyone was sleepy. But Louis wanted to see the puppies again before he went to bed. They were all sleeping, snuggled up with their mom. Louis watched them for a while. Then he laid down on the floor to watch them. Then…well, when Uncle Toby came to find Louis to say good-bye, he found him asleep on the laundry room floor. He picked him up and tucked him into his bed and said, “Merry Christmas, buddy.”
Louis was roused from his sleep a little after Uncle Toby left and the door closed. And he heard someone humming once last Christmas song.
#124 “Still, Still, Still”
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