A Christmas Eve princess story

Our Christmas Eve view. Sunshine!

Johanna and I braved the elements (in which I mean: Full sun and unseasonably warm weather. It's AWESOME) this morning to gather foodstuffs for various Christmas gatherings. I guess maybe I should have done my grocery shopping earlier in the week because blast!* It was crowded. We had to park in the boonies and walk. That doesn't happen very often in our Small Little Town.

Anyway, that's not even the story. The story is that we were in the produce section and who do we see but Belle! Or a three year old dressed as Belle. I was all, look! A princess! and then told her how beautiful she was. She beamed up at me and told me she was wearing Belle's dress, and I told her again that she was a lovely, lovely princess. Her dad was all, what do you say? and she was like, thank you! and I was like, I used to have one who dressed up like Madeline.

I did, too. When Abby was three, Aunt Ann sent her a Madeline costume for Halloween. Abby did not care if it wasn't October 31--she wore that thing all the time, complete with wig and hat, whenever the mood struck, which was often, and no matter where we were headed.

Of course, Abby is 14 now, so our costume days are way over, and Johanna announced early on that she's not a princess, she's a person, so I never even had such an experience with that kid. (Mismatched neon knee high socks with green capris and a purple shirt? All the time. Actually, that's what Jo is wearing today. Embrace who you are, that's my motto.)

So what I'm saying is that seeing a Very Happy Princess in a Very Crowded Grocery Store was awesome. Every time I spotted that kid I had to laugh. She was just so dang excited to be out in her princess dress. It was a nice contrast to everyone else (myself included) who was simply trying to endure.

Merry Christmas, Belle.

*Thanks again, Thesaurus.com, for giving my mother one less thing to worry about! (Hey there, Madre!)