Pan Dances – art.com
Today I got to pick up my oldest son, Nick from the airport. He’s an amazing young man; has a sound spiritual life, loves God, has a really strong allegorical mind, and is getting things done as a first year at the Air Force Academy. I love to read his stories. He writes really well and has an amazing imagination.
That imagination got him in a bit of (good natured) trouble a few years ago.
We were living in Columbus, Ohio. He was in second grade. One day during Advent, his public school had a local radio station come in to interview the kids about special family Christmas traditions. It was a big deal; it was a popular radio station and I’m sure they did it so they would increase the listeners that day. The school made CD’s for all the parents. Very nice.
If you have been following this blog, you know that we have some wonderful Christmas traditions in the Perkins family. Not only do we have the traditional English and American traditions, we also have the rich liturgical rituals of Eastern Orthodoxy. Nick grew up spending a lot of time in church and loved the things we did for Christmas at home. We were hoping that he would use his radio time to evangelize about good ways to embrace the reality of the Incarnation. He was such an articulate kid and this could have kicked off a wonderful evangelical campaign.
Alas, it was not meant to be. Nick decided that our traditions were not interesting enough. So he made some up. Here is what all of Columbus, Ohio (to include all the parents in our neighborhood) think the Perkins family does at Christmas (I don’t have it 100% right, but I am pretty close):
We love Christmas at our house. We wake up early so we can go up the ladder and jump down on the trampoline by the Christmas tree and bounce off the rubber bumpers. Mom and dad like to run around naked and dance to silly songs. Then we have pizza and chinese food and skip around the tree.
Yup, he could have chosen midnight services, candlelight caroling, advent wreaths, or any number of other things to talk about. But he had mom and dad dancing naked while he climbed ladders and bounced off rubber bumpers.
Priceless.
