The Spirit of Christmas?

Today we had lunch with a homeschool family that we don't see as often as our co-op families. They have 4 kids in the family & one of the girls is between Natalie & Bethany in age. She came home with us for the girls to play. Well, on the way home they were scheming. I mean, um, using their creative thinking skills in higher level thinking capacities. They first wanted a lemonade stand. Do we have fresh lemons? No. Do we have lemon juice? Yes, but we don't have cups. On to plan B. Hot cocoa! We can sell the packets & have hot water for them. Um, excuse me, but we DON'T HAVE CUPS!!!! So they settled on plan C: Dress up in Christmas costumes and sell stuff. Yes, seriously. We got home and soon an angel (complete with halo made of a pipe cleaner & a pen, which I'm sure is completely Scriptural!), Mary with Baby Jesus (the friend, because she "has the same color hair as Mary," no doubt from all the photos they took back then), and a lamb, who probably had the most authentic costume of the three! LOL!

They proceeded to find junk, er, treasures to sell. McDonald's toys, swimsuits that somehow missed the giveaway box, and other delights. They made a poster with "Christmas Carols 25 cents" and "Stuff 50 Cents." They set up shop and waited to make a sale. Did I mention we live on a culdesac? And that we have very little foot traffic on our street at 4:30 in the afternoon? We learned that we have a new couple who bought a house 2 doors down, that the man who runs everyday with his headset on can't hear you no matter how loudly you scream, and that the next door neighbor's daughter who was Bethany's age when we moved in, and is now around 20, has a soft spot for either Arielle (the Disney Little Mermaid) or for 3 little girls acting silly!

These 3 girls, all dressed in their prim outfits, were acting like hooligans jumping up & down shouting, "Come buy our stuff! Great sales!" And, yes, they actually sold songs! One man paid them $2.00 for a Christmas carol! Okay, so it wasn't a carol, but was Jingle Bells. I paid them each 25 cents. I heard a very nasally version of Jingle Bells from Natalie, an operatic version of Joy to the World from Bethany, and our friend sang one verse out of Christmas Shoes that she knows by heart! They ended up earning $4.50, which divided nicely into 3 equal amounts. Thus, we had math class, too.

I will add a picture of the 3 wise girls. I've blurred the friend's face since I've not asked permission to post that. Note the fake look of despair they chose to use in this posed shot. They had not earned any money yet! Look for these 3 to be in Fortune 500 in about 20 years!