Christmas Quotes

Christmas at the Rileys: Quotes from Christmastime, through the years

• When 2 ½-year-old Mary Elizabeth (whose birthday is Dec. 25) was mad at Madison, she threatened her twin, “You not come to my birthday; only SANTA!”
• During a FHE about being more Christlike, I asked everyone who was willing to try harder to be a peacemaker to raise his/her hand. When I asked 10-year-old Rachel-the-Troublemaker why she was the only one not raising her hand, she replied with a smile, “How can we be peacemakers if there’s nobody causing a problem? I’m just helping them so they can be peacemakers if they want to be.”
• One December night, 3-year-old Isaac lay in his bed, too excited to fall asleep. As Lyrad closed a bag of chips in the kitchen, Isaac called out hopefully from his bed, “I hear a wrapping-present sound!”
• Eliza went by her first name (Mary) until age 9. Madison (at ages 2, 3, and 4) wanted “equal treatment” at Christmastime: if we said “Merry Christmas”, Madi would pipe in “Madison Christmas!”
• As we left the house to go sing Christmas carols at a rest home, I asked 3-year-old Isaac what song he’d like to sing to the elderly people. “Boom boom, Ain’t it great to be CRAZY,” he happily sang.
• Seven-year-old Madison asked Dad a challenging question: "Here's the hardest question in the whole world: who do you love more, Mommy or Jesus?"
• A few days before my parents came to visit for Christmas in Germany, five-year-old Rachel told me: "Your mom is coming! She can tell you what to do! Like, 'Make the dinner' and 'Go to your room.'"
• One day 4-year-old Madison gave Daddy a nibble of her gumdrop. Then she held up her gumdrop for me to take a nibble. When I hesitated (thinking about where her little hands had been), she let me know that it was perfectly sanitary. "I licked Daddy's germs off," she reassured me.
• 5-year-old Isaac kept lists of what to give family members for Christmas, but when he was mad at Mom, he wrote “Cockroaches” on her list.
• After 3 1/2 –year-old Mary Elizabeth enthusiastically put up Christmas lights with Dad, she noticed that the neighbors had more lights than we did. Gazing longingly at the neighbors’ house, she said sadly, “They like Christmas more than us.”
• When baby Rachel was being fussy, 4-year-old Mary Elizabeth said sadly, “Don’t you wish we had a baby like Jesus? Because He doesn’t cry.”
• After we sang "Grandma got run over by a reindeer" to our children, three-year-old Rachel asked in a worried voice, "Was it OUR grandma?"
• Rachel has always been our Chief Gift Wrapper. When she ran out of gifts to wrap, 5-year-old Rachel began grabbing her siblings' toys from their rooms, wrapping them up, and putting them under the tree early in December. Frustrated Mary said in protest, "Rachel keeps wrapping up my favorite stuff!" I assured Mary she'd get it all back on Christmas. Then Mary said in despair, "But I won't have anything to play with while I WAIT for Christmas."
• One December evening we left our children with a teenage babysitter and returned home to chaos. While climbing on the furniture, 2-year-old Rachel had broken most of our glass nativity set. Noticing how disappointed I felt, Rachel tried to cheer me up by pointing out, "But Baby Jesus isn't broken!"
• When 4-year-old Mary was unhappy with her mother the week before Christmas, she said with a scowl: "I want a NEW MOMMY from Christmas.”
• I noticed that 7-year-old Joshie had written “hug” on his Christmas Wish List. “It doesn’t matter who gives me the hug,” he explained. Then he quickly added, “As long as they MEAN it!”
• One night after hearing the Nativity Story yet one more time, 4-year-old Rachel was scowling as Lyrad tucked her into bed. She asked him indignantly, “WHY when Baby Jesus was born did all the shepherds and wise men come, and when OUR baby was born, NO ONE came?”
• When Josh was tired of hearing the song “Stars Were Gleaming”, he made up his own version: "Too much singing, too much ringing, misery-bringing, badly singing. Stark and weak I hear it still."
• When eight-year-old Mary Elizabeth received warm fuzzy penguin jammies in a Christmas package from Grandma, she was ecstatic. "I just LOVE Grandma Linna. I wish she was MY mom," she exclaimed. Then she turned to me and assured me, "And YOU were my AUNT who lived with us."
• 3-year-old Joshy likes to have his “turn” at Scripture Time and “read” to us one December from Luke 2: “And it came to pass that Mary said, ‘Oh! Oh! I have a fat tummy. That’s because I’m going to have Baby Jesus’…” and he continued the story, ending with “and they flew to Germany in an airplane.”
• When Joshua opened new p.j.’s, he announced, “Everybody watch me change!” as he put them on.
• Rachel was SO excited for Eliza to open her gift. “You’re going to ALMOST FAINT!” 5-year-old Rachel warned Eliza, as Eliza began unwrapping.
• While holding up a nativity picture for his primary talk, 4-year-old Josh added some creative touches: “…the wise men brought Him gifts, but the wise men had to open the gifts because Jesus was too little.”
• 6-year-old Joshua loved his fuzzy bathrobe and wore it constantly: “It’s a hug that never stops!”
• 8-year-old Josh loves to point out the irony in life: "November goes right into December, right? It's funny how the month of being thankful goes right into the month of being greedy."
• 18-year-old Isaac: “You can tell you’re growing up when you get socks and underwear for Christmas and are excited about it.”