Our First Christmas Weekend

What a weekend! Like most of you, we were busy, busy, busy! It started on Saturday morning with our church's Breakfast At The Manger. It is specifically for our preschoolers & kindergarteners and their adult guests. So Ethan took Corey & I to his first Breakfast at the Manger. We walked into a our church's gymnasium that had been transformed into an eating area....lots of round tables, beautiful centerpieces, and the smell of pancakes. As we walked in, we were warmly greeted by our Children's Pastor, given name tags, and Ethan received a fuzzy coloring page of the nativity scene to color....and the markers were on the tables. She gave him 3 directions.....put your name on the back, color the picture, and hang it on your refrigerator (she had added a magnet to the back). He listened intently....and did exactly as she said without any reminders from mom & dad.

This is the back of the picture...and the start of Ethan's name.

This is the front of the picture. If you look closely, you can see that Ethan continued to spell his name in green across the front. LOL! Then, he & I took turned coloring the little stars. He did pretty good!!!!

After we colored, we all prayed & started our breakfast....pancakes, eggs, fruit, toast....simple, but sooooo good! When we were all done eating, our Children's Pastor gathered the little ones together to tell the Christmas story. Each child was given something to hold as part of telling the story....animals, the Wise Men's gifts, the angel....and baby Jesus. Ethan was given the honor of holding baby Jesus. Yes, he whacked the doll's head on the manger, but it was so sweet! And Ethan sat with the other kids, listened to the story, and played his part very well. I was very impressed. Thank you Preschool!

Here is Ethan "holding" baby Jesus. He kept his legs so straight so the doll could lay on his legs.

At one point, the kids cheered as the shepherds would have when they learned about Jesus being born, and Ethan did cry. However, it was the shortest cry he has ever done when people cheer! I was fully expecting to have to remove him from the gym after that, but he quickly recovered & was able to participate in the whole program! YEAH!!!!! It was wonderful!

Then, that evening, I had a wonderful Girls' Night Out. We all got together and watched Christmas movies, ate dinner, and wrapped our family's gifts....it was so much fun! I definitely need time for myself every now & then! And when I'm gone......it's Guys' Night In at my house. Corey & Ethan usually do something pretty fun together. This time the boys were low-key & just played cars & games together....although they did make pizza and chocolate chip cookies!

The next morning was Sunday morning....and the day of Ethan's Christmas Program at church. I didn't sleep very well the night before because I was so nervous about how Ethan would handle everything.....the newness, the loudness, the lack of typical routine. However, his 2 teachers are 2 of my best friends & people that he knows/is comfortable with, so that was reassuring. I was only on standby in case they needed me to help out with him.....and I fully expected to be needed. There are 25 kids in his Preschool class at church, and it is hard to give Ethan extra care with a class so big. I totally get that from being a teacher back in the day. However, I was soooooooo wrong.....

Ethan did wonderful!!!!! He plugged his ears when it was loud, but never cried or screamed. He even had a line in the program!!! And I had no idea!!!!! We have 2 church services on a Sunday morning, and Ethan said his line both times!!!! At the end of the 2nd time they did their program, Ethan was definitely ready to be done. I could see that tears were beginning to form the longer he stood on stage. At one point, he made a bee line for my mom who was taking pictures in the front row. As they walked out of the sanctuary, Ethan came into our pew, so one of the male teachers carried him out. But, he did so well! He could not have been able to do this 5-6 months ago! I was so proud of him! Below is a video of Ethan saying his line in the first service. I was running the camcorder so it is a little shaky....because I was bawling! What a gift we were given yesterday!

Finally, on Sunday afternoon, we went to see Rider's In The Sky Christmas Show. My husband works for Caterpillar, and every year they offer their employees a chance to buy tickets to a CAT holiday show. This was our first time going, and we invited my sister & her family. Her son LOOOOOOVES cowboys, so we knew that we HAD to take him. And he LOVED it! It was worth the price of tickets just to watch him enjoying the concert. AND Ethan was able to enjoy it as well! We did take his sound-proofing headphones....which he asked for.....but he was still able to hear the music. When they started singing Jingle Bells, he looked at me with a face that said....."How do THEY know Jingle Bells?!" He was so excited. Then, he said, "Mommy to sing Jingle Bells?"....so I sang right along with the Riders In The Sky cowboys. At one point, he crawled onto the floor and kept laughing....because he shoes glow in the dark & he thought that was funny. But for such a busy & LOUD weekend, he was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!

I will never forget last Christmas season. If you read in "Our Story", you will see that there was a significant event during last Christmas season. At Ethan's Early Intervention Christmas Party, Ethan had a terrible meltdown/episode (which turned out to be a blessing because it led us to Occupational Therapy). But as I lay awake in bed the night before his Church Christmas Program, I kept thinking about last year.....and how he just couldn't handle it. I will never forget how I held my screaming child alone in the bathroom while I cried & cried. It was yet another meltdown, and I was at such a loss at how to help him......I felt all alone. And sometimes this road of learning to live with autism is very overwhelming & very lonely. BUT, the more I open up about our journey, the more people surround us with support & love.

And what a difference a year has made! I have cried all weekend because I am so HAPPY for Ethan. I thought we were Ethan's only cheerleaders in the audience this past Sunday, but we were not.....far from it!
All around me people were commenting on how well Ethan was doing, how they were rooting for him, how they too felt the joy that we were experiencing as Ethan stood on that stage.....as I walked out of the sanctuary (after the end of the kid's program but before the 2nd service really began), my eyes met one of my friend's eyes, and we both did a little cheer together! Even still today, I am receiving emails & texts from others who are just as excited for Ethan as we are! I'm so happy that we have so many people rooting for Ethan! What a blessing that is to his mommy!

Never in a million years would I have ever dreamed that he would have done as well as he did this weekend! It is moments like these that reaffirm all of our efforts in working with Ethan, and encourage me to continue....AND further proof that we are on the right path. YEE-HAW!!!!!