The other day Anna was setting her dishes and Max's dishes on the table for dinner and she told us all "I'm never going to do another mean thing again!" It made me remember all the times when I was little that I set a lofty goal of perfection and then failed within minutes, (I guess I still do that ) so I said "That's good Anna, but remember that we all make mistakes and when we do we can repent and the mistake will get erased." She asked me how we repent and I said we say sorry to who we hurt and we say sorry to Heavenly Father when we pray. ONE MINUTE LATER, Max came and messed up the dishes Anna had just set on the table. I watched as, in the very same moment, she bopped him on the head and said, running to her bedroom, "I think I need to go say a prayer!" Hmmmm.
Experience #2 with being good. Recently Anna's preschool teacher Miss Jeanna (who she adores, and I do too) told their class about elves. They come at Christmas time and watch to see if you've been good, then they tell Santa all the nice or naughty things you've done. Well, we had a bad going-to-bed episode the other night, during which Anna was too excited for her preschool Christmas party to stay in bed and therefore ended up with a frustrated mommy and a daddy guarding her door, reading his book, until she fell asleep. The next morning when Anna woke up she was all teary about everything and I thought she was probably just tired, but during breakfast she asked me "Do you think there were any elves at our house last night?" I tried to be serious and said "Mayber there were--you never know with elves." Anna burst into tears and yelled (and this is my favorite part). . ."I think I will get LINT for Christmas!" (That sounds even worse than coal!) Don't worry--Anna is on the nice list, but being good is sometimes hard!
