We’ve had a few humorous utterances from our youngest (with Autism) recently…
One of the funniest came when we visited the “Walk Through Bethlehem” at Mountain View United Methodist Church in Marrietta, GA last weekend. This was a wonderful family field trip and if you ever get a chance to go, I highly recommend! The church re-creates Bethlehem as it may have been at the time Christ was born, complete with a market place, Inn (no rooms available, of course) Temple, and manger. There were shop keepers hawking their wares (and educating you a bit on their products and how they were used 2000 years ago in that part of the world), storytellers, Roman Soldiers (harassing people for not paying their taxes), and a Rabbi. There were even stalls where you could enter your name in the Census book and others where you could pay your taxes.
My youngest and I split apart from the group so we could wander about to our heart’s content. My son asked lots of questions and we both enjoyed pretending that we were an Isrealite on the night that Jesus was born. My son even shouted “You are MEAN!” at the soldiers in a show of bold defiance.
At one point my son entered his name in the Census book (I wasn’t allowed to sign since I was a woman) and we turned to walk toward the Tax Collector’s stall. I explained that we needed to avoid the soldiers and pay our taxes.
“What was that, Mommy?” he asked.
“Pay our taxes,” I said.
He stopped in the middle of the marketplace and shouted “WHAT?!? We have to PAY for TEXAS?”
I looked down at him and started giggling.
Without missing a beat he cocked his head and said “Pay for Texas! You are so silly Mommy.”
Merry Christmas to you all… and hoping your taxes don’t seem like paying for Texas.