A Christmas Thriller

It appears we still have some work to do when it comes to the story of Christmas.

Last year we had the Easter story conversation in the car; you may remember the First Little Traveler announcing with great confidence that she knew the names of Jesus's parents "Lilly and James". When I raised an eyebrow she thought for a moment and then clicked that she had Jesus confused with Harry Potter.

I want The Little Travelers to understand the story behind Christmas rather than just chatter about Santa and Christmas lists. The elder three travelers appear to have grasped the concept of the story, but the youngest traveler is still trying to get his head around it all.

After reeling off his list of "wants" for Christmas we made our way back to the Christmas story and the true meaning of Christmas once more.

We began agains with the story of Joseph and Mary and their situation with Innkeeper.

"But why didn't the Innkeeper have any room for them?"

"Because it was full"

"Was it because Mary was pregnant and really fat and she couldn't fit?"

This lead to a whole other conversation about pregnant people and why they are not fat and why fat is not a term that we like to use when discussing people.

And then we got back to Mary and Joseph.

The questions that followed were exhausting. They were exhausting because I really didn't have all the answers and the more I stumbled the more details seemed to be required. I was being drilled, the room became smaller and I was feeling the need to ask if I could have a lawyer present.

"Who were Mary and Josephs brothers and sisters?"

"Did the wise men have any children of their own, did they get gifts as well - because that wouldn't have been fair if they took all of those gifts to Jesus and didn't given any to their own kids"

Did Jesus have hair when he was born?

I decided to handball. We agreed that Aunty Susie would be much better with all of the questions and we should write them down for her. And then came this last little gem.

"So when did Jesus die?"

"Remember we talked about Jesus on the cross at Easter time? When he came back from the dead?"

His eyes widened. He couldn't believe it.

"Jesus was a ZOMBIE?!"