My nephew Luke

You gotta love Luke. Here he is. My nephew. My Godson. He has his challenges. Sometimes just doing what is expected, staying within the boundaries, is very difficult for him. But he has a cheerful, imaginative and creative spirit about him.

Here he is opening a gift he clearly was enjoying-- one of Santa's reindeer's bells. (Mind you, he doesn't believe in Santa. But he still enjoys an innocent kind of pretending.)

You can always count on Luke. Often he will do what the other kids will not. For example, at our Christmas Mass we have a procession made up of mostly children bringing to Baby Jesus in the Nativity Scene baby items for our local crisis pregnancy center. Naturally, it was Luke who agreed to represent our family with the baby items in the procession.

On Christmas morning of course it was Luke who volunteered to take the Baby Jesus to the OUTDOOR Nativity Scene. Here he is coming down the stairs....
And then, without even grabbing a coat, he immediately headed outside for the manger...

And placed Jesus carefully in the manger...I thought it was so cute I was standing on the porch in my bathrobe taking pictures.
Yup, as my brother once said, "He's our Luke. No matter what he does, he's still our Luke." Yes. And we love him.

Now recall the reindeer bell he so delighted in above.

Zach (my new and favorite son-in-law) wrote the following poem (in 90 seconds) during the reindeer games.

An Ode to Santa

Dancer dropped his bell.

When I found it, I nearly fell.

Resentment, I hope he doesn't harbor

For I am the newest reindeer, Luke Barber!

I thought I would die laughing. And Luke thought it was the funniest of all! LOL